Fairy tail's Burning will
by YoruNoFukuro
Summary: Upon his birth, Naruto recieved a huge burden. A dragon of shadow, sealed within him by his own parents. Follow Naruto as he grows up becoming one of Fiore's most renowned ,and feared, mages. Future romance.
1. Chapter 1: Naruto's birth

**Fairy tail's Burning will**

Chapter 1: Naruto's birth

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

"Talking/_Thoughts"_

"Attacks/**Dragon (or demon) attacks**

"**Dragon (or demon) talking/**_**Thoughts"**_

* * *

It was a dark night in the small village of Konoha. Snow had descended onto the village days before and by the late night of the 10th of October, it had been full covered in a thick blanket of snow. The village was filled with sound of a woman screaming, the sound was coming from a small house near the outskirts of the village which was crowded by a semi-circle of eager villagers. Under the moon's gaze the village appeared to be rather peaceful… that was soon to change.

"Ahhhhh!" A redheaded woman lay on top of a bed let out a chorus of ear-piercing screams. Her hand was holding, clutching the blond man's hand next to her.

"GAH!" The blond next to her was looking worse than she did, he lay on the floor next to the bed, his hand being violently tugged by the redhead, to the point where it looked ready to snap.

"Kushina stop squeezing my hand so much! It's going to break!" The blond man yelled.

The redhead ignored him and continued to, hell, it looked as if she started to crush it even more. A few seconds later the blond was fully lying on the floor, his body lying limply against the bed, his right hand still being crushed.

There were two others in the room, both clad in white uniforms, stood at the foot of the bed. They were willing the redhead on, telling her to keep pushing.

Eventually Minato felt his hand being released from the death grip. He looked up at the redhead ,who was panting heavily, his eyes widened when he saw one of the doctors holding a small bundle in their arms. He left out a relieved sigh massaging his wrist before pushing himself to his feet.

He began to walk toward the foot of the bed but was stopped by a gentle tug on the sleeve, he turned to look at Kushina who had a soft grip on his shirt.

" Minato" she whispered between gasps, " you promised that I could hold our child first, after all I did do most of the hard work."

Her last word were uttered with a hint of annoyance that he had forgotten the promise he had made, not wanting to anger her he backed away slightly letting the doctor hand the child to Kushina who accepted it gently. Kushina opened her mouth ready to say something but instead tears slowly rolled down her cheeks as she hugged the child lovingly to her chest. Minato went over and sat on the side of the bed wrapping his arms around the child and his wife.

"So" Minato whispered to his wife, " have you thought of a name for him?"

"Yes" she smiled, "Naruto."

Minato smiled and kissed her on the cheek, "I like it. So are you ready to tell the villagers?"

She nodded and extended the child towards the doctors, they began walking forwards to accept the child from his mother, but were halted when a large tremor caused them to lose their footing and fall to the ground harshly. Kushina instinctively held the child to her chest as the house shook violently and the screams of the villagers filled the once calm atmosphere.

"What the hell!?" Minato cried as he was flung from the bed onto the floor.

He quickly sprang to his feet to make sure that his family was safe, upon seeing they were fine he rushed to the door flinging it open with ease. He looked outside to see all of the villagers staring in shock at something near the centre of the village.

"Wha-what.." Minato stuttered, looking in the same direction as the villagers.

He was staring at an enormous dragon that easily dwarfed the house that littered the village. The dragon had two curved horns jutting from the top of its head, its body was covered in pitch black scales that seemed to be illuminated under the moon's light. An eerie black mist was coming from the dragon's body that made it look even more intimidating. The dragon took as step towards the flock of villagers who were either too scared to move or had been knocked down by its landing. Every step that it took caused the village to shake and left and imprint in the thick snow beneath its legs. Its tail swished behind it lazily, every now and then it would smash into one of the houses causing severe damage to it.

Minato grit his teeth looking at the incoming threat, "everyone get back!" he yelled as loud as he could.

The villager snapped out of the trance and began backing away from the dragon, towards the house. Minato did the opposite, he walked cautiously towards the dragon, slowly pulling a three-pronged kunai from the pouch around his waist. Beads of sweat ran down his brow as he came within steps of the beast.

"_Damn" _he thought, "_why now? I can't defeat this thing without putting the villagers, Kushina and Naruto at risk. I'll have to lure it away, it's my only chance."_

Minato's eyes widened as the dragon's maw spilt into a mocking grin. By time he noticed why it was too late, the dragon's tail had soared past Minato and straight at the villagers behind him with the intent to impale them. Minato summoned a blue seal in his hand before throwing the hand behind him, causing a blue sphere to form in his hand.

"Wind magic: Rasengan" Minato flicked his hand forwards, driving the sphere into the dragon's tail. He didn't manage to cause significant damage to the beast but it did redirect its tail, causing it to land in the ground just left of the house and out of the way of the villagers.

The dragon's gaze had flickered from Minato to its tail, watching it as it was blown to the side, saving the villagers. It returned its sight back to the spot where Minato had been stood, only to find that he was no longer there.

"Flying thunder god technique" the dragon felt something touch its stomach but was powerless as it was teleported away from the village.

* * *

Back inside the house, Kushina had managed to get to her feet cradling Naruto in her arms. She searched around the room, her vision blurry from the multiple shockwaves. She eventually reached the door and pulled it open weakly.

"What's going on?" She whispered, her breath hitched in her throat as she looked at the ruined village.

"Kushina are you okay?" One of the villagers asked.

"I'm fine, but what's happened? Where's Minato? Is he okay?" She questioned frantically.

The villagers murmured amongst themselves trying to come up with an answer to her questions.

"There was a dragon" one man pointed out, " it tried to attack us but Minato saved by using his teleportation magic to get it away from the villages.

Kushina's eyes widened in dismay, "_Minato, please be okay."_ She gripped Naruto tightly looking at him with comforting eyes as the child cried constantly, "Don't worry it'll all be okay, your father can handle this."

* * *

"Summoning magic: Gamabunta" Minato slammed his palm into the ground beneath him causing a torrent of smoke to appear which drifted away revealing a toad that was around three times the size of the dragon.

The dragon's eyes narrowed looking at the toad, it looked it up and down a few times before letting out a deafening roar.

"Yo, boss why'd you call me out for a small fry like this?" The toad asked staring down at the menacing dragon, "Surely you can't be having trouble with a mere dragon?"

Minato chuckled; he was stood atop the toad looking down at the dragon that appeared to be in deep thought.

"I'm afraid this things been quite a pain, trust me don't underestimate it, it can attack in an instant." He then reached into the pouch pulling out a scroll which he carefully un-ravelled.

He placed his hand onto the magic seal in the middle of the scroll before throwing it above the dragon. The scroll let out another burst of smoke; however this smoke didn't disperse as quickly. Instead the same three-pronged kunais that he had used before, to get close to the dragon to teleport it, began to rain down from the smoke and shower the dragon.

The dragon shrieked with laughter as the kunais bounced off of his hard scales and landed on the ground, seemingly useless. What the dragon failed to notice was that he had been surrounded by hundreds of the weapons.

"Gamabunta." Minato shouted, his eyes still stuck to the dragon. "Back me up, okay?"

"Sure thing" the toad smirked placing its hand on the sword strapped across its back, he pulled it slightly from the sheath.

"GO!" Minato ordered as he disappeared in a flash of blue light.

The dragon tilted its head in confusion, it had lived a long life but not once had it seen a human disappear out of thin air.

"Raargh!" The dragon was snapped from its thoughts as it had only a split second for its tail to shoot up, just managing to block the overhead swing of the toad's blade.

The two giants struggled for dominance using their full force to fight each other off. Gamabunta began to slide backwards, his legs gave way for a slight moment which didn't go un-noticed by his opponent. Using the slight opening to its advantage the dragon slipped though the toad's guard with a tremendous burst of speed and used its side to smash into the toad crushing him between the cliff behind him and the dragon's powerful body.

As the dragon backed away from its prey, its ears pricked up noticing a strange chiming sound behind it. It turned to find the source of the sound spinning straight towards him.

"Wind magic: Rasenshuriken" the attack hit the dragon head on, it expanded into a gigantic sphere that crushed the dragon into the ground.

Minato landed next to one of his kunais, he peered into the crater that his attack had formed. He expected the dragon to be dead, or at least injured. However it merely shook of the attack as it stood back up. Minato disappeared in another flicker preparing his next move.

The dragon stumbled out of the crater that the attack has created in an attempt to recover.

"Wind magic: Giant Rasengan" The dragon felt a sharp pain in its side as a sphere similar to that which knocked its tail away, but much larger was driven into its body

The dragon roared in pain as it was thrown into the same cliff that Gamabunta had just managed to peel himself off of. When it had gotten up from the torrent of attacks it surveyed the area in search of the blond, yet once again he could not find the man. The dragon started to walk towards the village intending to draw the man out through threatening those he loved, but was blocked by the toad who offered him a smirk as he pulled the sword fully from its sheath.

"Time for round 2" the toad roared sending a slash at the dragon's scowling visage.

The dragon opened its mouth, a swirl of the thick, shadowy mist appeared before its razor sharp teeth. The spiral of shadow grew larger until the dragon swallowed it.

"What the he.." Gamabunta was unable to finish his sentence as a blast of dark energy hit him in the mid-section sending him flying backwards; he was only stopped by a harsh impact with countless trees as he tumbled across the ground, leaving a large scar from where his body was dragged across the terrain.

The dragon watched the toad's lifeless body at the end of the scar, its mouth opened revealing a sickening grin as it switched its gaze to stare at the snow-covered village.

Minato watched Gamabunta being man-handled by the dragon's attack. He silently apologised to the toad before reverse summoning him. He disappeared as he saw the dragon look at the smoke which replaced the toad's large body, most likely wondering what happened.

Minato re-appeared on the back of the dragon, courtesy of a kunai which was stuck between the dragon's scales. A large seal appeared before him, he placed the kunai into the seal causing it to disappear in the usual flash of light.

The dragon reared up onto its hind legs in an attempt to shake Minato from its back. In its struggle to remove the human, it failed to notice all of the kunais had begun glowing a bright blue light.

"Flying thunder god technique – flash bang" A clone of Minato appeared at each of the separate kunais, each clone has a large blue sphere in hand. They charged at the beast, which was still on its hind legs.

True to its name the technique blinded the dragon with the multiple flashes of blue lights emitted from the spheres. It also lived up to the 'bang' part which came from the giant explosion as each of the sphere swarmed the dragon burying him beneath the attacks.

Minato landed metres away from the explosion, panting heavily. He squinted his eyes in an attempt to see into the dust that the attack had kicked up. His eyes widened in panic, he was forced to jump away as the dragon's maw lunged through the dust attempting to make Minato into his snack. Once it saw that Minato had escaped into the air, it pushed off the ground in pursuit.

Minato summoned a magic seal in between both of his hands. He watched as the dragon neared him at a frightening speed, its mouth fully open desperately trying to swallow the man whole.

"_Gotta time this right"_ Minato thought as he began to descend right into the dragon's open mouth.

Just as the dragon clamped its teeth together thinking he had finally caught Minato, it felt a metal object pierce into its unprotected snout. It roared in a mixture of pain and anger but still managed to make out the blue flash which appeared on its snout.

"Perfect" Minato stated. He jumped off of the dragon's snout back into the air.

"Wind magic: Rasenshuriken" the blue sphere with the shuriken-like cloak around it appeared in Minato's hand. He prepared himself to throw it, narrowing his eyes, not wanting to mess it up.

"**Shadow dragon magic: Shadow cannon"**

Minato's expression became a mixture of shock and despair. The shock was a cause of hearing the dragon speak, he had never heard a dragon speak, but then again this was the first dragon he had met. The despair was caused by looking into the pillar of pure shadow heading towards him, courtesy of the dragon.

"_Gotta make this count" _Minato's eyes set into a look of determination as he threw his Rasenshuriken at the incoming blast.

The two attacks met in a huge explosion, the Rasenshuriken appeared to be being pushed back by the dragon's attack.

"Wind magic: Rasenshuriken!"

Another Rasenshuriken collided with the blast turning the tide completely. The combined force of both of the attacks pushed the dragon's blast back with ease.

"**Shadow dragon magic: separation"**

As the dragon uttered the words, though muffled by his original attack, its attack split into 4 separate, small orbs of shadow which bypassed the Rasenshurikens and collided full force into Minato's airborne form causing a giant explosion.

This attack came at a cost however, the two Rasenshurikens headed straight inside the dragon's open mouth where the expanded tearing the dragon apart from the inside.

* * *

All of the villagers, including Kushina watched in awe as both of the attacks hit the respective opponent, sending Minato spiralling to the ground below him whilst the dragon exploded leaving a shadowy mist in its place.

"Minato!" Kushina screamed, starting to run towards where she saw his body fall to.

"Wait!" multiple villagers ordered, grabbing her trying to stop her from going over to the battlefield.

"Let go!" she commanded, "He's injured!"

"But the dragon may still live" one of the villagers protested.

"What?! You saw the explosion, there's no way it could have survived!"

"Don't you find it strange?" another villager asked, "the dragon exploded, but instead of blood there was only that strange mist. We can't let you go there until we are sure that it is dead."

"…." Kushina was silent for a while, "Fine, but if something happens to Minato…" She trailed off unable to finish her sentence. Unbeknownst to the villagers, the real Kushina had snuck past them leaving the clone to fool them as she took off towards Minato's landing point. She was still clutching Naruto to her chest.

* * *

Minato gasped for breath desperately as he lay in a pool of his own blood caused by the dragon's attack.

"_I need to get to the village; I can't let it attack, if it survived."_

"Gah!" With one last pull Minato managed to pull himself from the crater and slowly rolled to his back. He looked up at the sky a look disbelief marring his face.

"_This can't be happening"_ He thought letting out a small chuckle.

In the sky above Minato was a giant sphere of the same shadowy energy that the dragon emitted. After what seemed to be minutes the sphere exploded dispersing the shadowy mist. Hovering in the sky where the sphere had been was the dragon; its wings flapped continuously keeping it aloft as it scanned the area for Minato. When it had finally found his downed form it let of and ear-splitting roar before landing a couple feet away from the blond.

"**I'm impressed human." **The dragon stated a look equal to Minato's on its visage. "**A human who doesn't possess dragon slayer magic actually managed to harm me, even if it was only temporary."**

Minato let out a weak chuckle, his eyes meeting with the dragons. "That's a pretty handy ability you've got. No one has ever survived a direct hit from one of my Rasenshurikens, let alone two at the same time."

The dragon let out its own chuckle, "**Tell me your name human, I'll remember it in the years to come. Any human that can force me to regenerate earns my upmost respect.**

"Minato. Minato Namikaze" He wheezed to the dragon.

"**Kage, the shadow dragon." **The dragon grinned, happy with his introduction.

Minato sweat dropped at the dragon's gleeful grin, "Was that supposed to be frightening or something?"

"**WATCH YOUR MANNERS BRAT!" The dragon's face was tinted red with anger and embarrassment and a comical tick mark has formed below his horns.**

"Hahaha, you know you're not such a bad guy when you get past the whole 'trying to kill my village' part." Minato's expression returned to being serious, "I don't suppose you can spare my village?"

"…"The dragon seemed to ponder the question for a moment, "**No, if I were to do that, then I would have to break the cycle."**

"The cycle? What's that?"

"**It would be pointless to tell you; even if you have earned my respect I don't trust you enough to tell you about that which binds the entire dragon race."**

"I see…" Minato managed to slowly push himself to his feet and even then his body threatened to give in on him. "Thanks for our little chat, but…"

Minato glared at the dragon, his eyes a torrent of determination, "There's no way I'll allow you to destroy my village!"

"…**. Minato, I'll provide you with a quick death, one that a human such as yourself deserves." **With them words he raised his tail behind him.

"**Shadow dragon magic: impaling lance"** Its tail lunged around its large frame, straight towards Minato.

"Binding magic: unbreakable bonds"

In an instant the dragon had been pinned to the floor by numerous chains which had come from the trees behind Minato.

"_This magic" _Minato thought. He spun around towards the source of the chains, his wife, Kushina.

"Minato! Thank god you're okay!" Just like before, she had their child clutched to her chest. However there was a noticeable difference: from her stomach came the multiple chains, the same which had pinned the dragon to the floor, preventing it from harming Minato.

Minato blinked countless times, trying to make sure that he wasn't imagining his wife's sudden appearance. "Kushina, what are you doing here? Why have you brought Naruto?"

"Minato, we both know why I've brought him here." She refused to make eye contact with her husband. "You saw first-hand what the dragon is capable of. He regenerated from being blown up from the inside."

She looked up, finally making eye-contact. "Minato, the only way of protecting the village is to seal it away!"

"**Gahaha, there's no way that any human can seal me away; just like a shadow no human can harm me." **It grinned proudly at his last statement, waiting for the chains to release him.

"Okay." A large, black seal between Minato and the dragon, he turned to face it.

"Sealing magic: reaper death seal" Minato chanted the words and watched as the seal disappeared.

After the seal had disappeared a ghost like figure appeared behind Minato. It wore a white robe covering its grey skin; its hair was purple in colours and covered him like a mane. He had two horns protruding from the top of his head though the hair. In its mouth was a small dagger held in place by its razor sharp teeth. The most frightening feature was the featureless body that was held in front of it.

Minato pointed forwards at the dragon, and almost instantaneously a hand shot though the featureless body's and Minato's stomachs causing the latter to cringe in pain.

"Kushina, prepare Naruto for the sealing."

"O-Okay" She was caught off guard at the hand piercing the blonde's stomach, she had been told about the sealing magic but had never seen it before. She pulled out a scroll and unsealed it revealing a chair which was surrounded by candles.

"**What the hell?" **the dragon stared at its stomach which had also been pierced by the stretched hand. It suddenly felt a strange pull from the hand and saw that I was pulling something from his stomach. It's soul.

The dragon began to struggle furiously, it had encountered many humans who used sealing magic, but not once had he felt one which had a physical effect on him. For the first time, Kage doubted his immortality against humans and for the first time he felt a new emotion. Worry.

"Gah!" Minato struggled endlessly as he attempted to pull the soul from the dragon. Obviously this was the first time he had used the magic since it forfeits the user's life, he had purposely missed out that information to Kushina, knowing that she would forbid him to use it, even in a time like now.

SNAP!

The sound rang through the air attracting the attention of Minato and Kushina.

Kage's tail had been freed from the chain and it lunged towards them instantly. No. It lunged towards Naruto.

"**You think I don't see what you're trying to do!?" **Kage roared.

The tail was closing in on the child…

"**What..."** The dragon watched in annoyance.

Both Minato and Kushina had got in between the tail and Naruto. They had both been pierced though the back by the dragon's tail managing to stop its momentum by dragging their feet across the ground. The tail was inches from the child's face but was unable to go any further.

"Argh!" Minato and Kushina held onto the tail stubbornly keeping it from going any further.

"Minato…why didn't you let me stop the tail alone? We didn't have to both die." She wheezed.

"Hehe... I was going to die either way."

"What are you talking about?"

"The reaper death seal..." He paused as blood erupted from his mouth. "…the magic takes the users life as forfeit."

"What?!" She shouted weakly, "why didn't you tell me? We could have found another way…"

"Strange I thought you said that there was no other way earlier? Why is it that my death changes this?" He smirked, resting his head on her shoulder. "Well I guess it's time to say goodbye to our son."

Both of the parents had tears streaming down their cheeks as they watched their child toss in the seat, unbeknownst to the danger him and his parents where in.

"Naruto…" Kushina started, "be safe growing up. Don't be picky, eat lots and grow strong. Make sure that you bathe every day and stay warm. Also, don't stay up late, you need lots of sleep. And make friends, you don't need a lot of friends, just a few. Ones you can really, really trust. I wasn't very good at it, but keep up with your studies and practice your spells hard, remember that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, so don't get too depressed if you can't do something well. Oh, and this is important, it's about the Three Prohibitions for a mage: be extra careful about lending and borrowing money. Put your mission wages into your savings account. No alcohol until you're twenty. Too much can ruin your health, so drink in moderation. Another Prohibition is women. I'm a woman, so I don't know too much about this but. All you need to remember is that this world is made up of men and women, so it's only natural to take an interest in girls. But just don't get hooked on bad women, find someone just like me. Naruto, from now on, you're going to face lots of pain and hardship. Be true to yourself. Have a dream and have the confidence to make that dream come true. There's so much. Oh, so much more that I want to pass on to you. I wish I could stay with you longer. I love you"

"Hehe, I'd give you some advice too, but it looks like your mother has covered everything." Minato chuckled.

He looked over his shoulder; the reaper had just about finished pulling out the dragon's soul. It raised one of its hands which had, what seemed to be, prayer beads wrapped around it. Its other hand pulled out the small dagger from its mouth and held it above its head.

"Naruto, good luck in the future. Remember that I and your mother will always be there with you."

"Goodbye Naruto!" both the parents whispered.

The reaper brought it's blade down which cut through the soul with ease, separating it from the dragon's body.

The dragon let out a final roar: **"Curse you Minato. How dare you seal me inside a mere brat!"**

Minato smiled at the dragon's threat before his eyes slowly closed for the last time, the smile etched to his lips.

The dragon's body disappeared as its soul was sealed into Naruto. A seal appeared on Naruto's stomach. (Author's note: the seal is the same eight trigrams seal which Minato uses to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto. I decided to link the eight trigram sealing style and the reaper death seal into one single magic.)

The reaper disappeared along with the dragon's body, leaving the two lifeless bodies of Minato and Kushina on the ground next to the seat which Naruto had been placed in.

"There they are!" A voice came from the forest. Villagers came flooding from the forest. They held simple weaponry such as rusted swords and some even held pitchforks. They surrounded the two lifeless bodies surveying the scene.

"…" An old man wearing a white robe picked up Naruto from the chair, "Prepare a burial for them"

"O-Ok" the villagers responded shocked at the scene.

The old man noticed the smile on Minato's face and let out an emotionless chuckle.

"So Minato. You left a legacy one way or another" He looked at the child in his arms. A few of his tears fell to the snowy ground.

"Naruto Uzumaki" He sighed, "if your whole life is as chaotic as your birth, you're going to have one hell of a journey ahead of you."

He paused.

"Just like your father."

* * *

**Finished,**

**I honestly wasn't going to introduce Naruto's birth until later into the story, but I decided to get it over with straight away. The chapter was quite hard to type since I decided to include it in at the last minute which is why it may seem pretty bad or rushed XD.**

**The pairing will be Naruto X Erza. I know that people think it's overdone, but i'm going with what I want to do in regards to the pairing.**

**I will include polls later on for ideas, etc.**

**As you've probably noticed there aren't any ties to the ninja realm. Therefore, Minato and Kushina are both mages and the village is in Fiore. I cut the ties with ninja realm as it was the easiest way to introduce Naruto into earth land from the ninja realm.**

**I made Minato stronger hence why he used attacks such as the Rasenshuriken and I added an attack for him. This is because Naruto won't be using wind magic in the story and therefore is unable to use the Rasenshuriken so I gave it to Minato. However Naruto will a few attacks similar to the Rasengan but will revolve around the magic that he will be using.**

**I will tell you that Naruto will be using dragon slayer magic (after all he does have a dragon inside of him, and the title gives away the other dragon slayer magic), so yes he will be using two types of dragon slayer magic.**

**Naruto isn't going to be overpowered, I will try to make the use of two dragon slayer magic's fair and make sure that he doesn't dominate any opponents.**

**Also, I will be adding some attacks for characters which I think don't have a variety of attacks such as Erza. You'll get what I mean later on in the story.**

**I replace the Kyuubi with Kage who will play a similar role as the Kyuubi did but will fit in better with the crossover.**

**The story is going to be pre-canon for quite a few chapters as I have a lot in store for Naruto's growth. **

**That's about everything. I'll try to answer any questions in the reviews. Also i'd like to know how I could improve since it is my first story =). Any constructive criticism would be appreciated, but any sort of flaming will be ignored.**

**I'll try to aim for weekly updates ,**

**Thanks for reading =)**


	2. Chapter 2: Destruction of Konoha

**Fairy tail's Burning will**

Chapter 1: Destruction of Konoha

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

"Talking/_Thoughts"_

"Attacks/**Dragon (or demon) attacks****"**

"**Dragon (or demon) talking/**_**Thoughts"**_

* * *

**As I promised in the first chapter I will answer some questions from the reviews:**

**XPircerOfHeavenX: Naruto will be very much like canon, such as he will keep a lot of his usual personality such as his love of ramen, etc. The reason that I won't change it much is because I'm revolving the story around Naruto as a character because he is a great character so I didn't really want to change him. However, I am going to change his usual hot-headed personality that he did have, such as how he would always run in head on. Instead, I've chose to make him smarter and calmer; of course he will still have his moments were he will lose his temper.**

**meowy1986: The dragon isn't Acnologia. The dragon is called "Kage" which means shadow in English; therefore the dragon is a dragon of shadow. Kage is just a made up dragon that I decided to create in place of the Kyuubi, it has no relation to Rouge's parent dragon (Rouge is the shadow dragon slayer) and it will be explained later on as to how there is two shadow dragons.**

**deadw8: I've already chosen the 2****nd**** dragon slayer power which will be hinted at during the chapter, and by hinted at I mean it should be blatantly obvious XD.**

**Guest: True. I said the Rasengan part in no relevance to the wind magic I was just saying that he will be using attacks like his old one but now they will revolve around his new magic. The normal Rasengan won't be learnt till later on in pre-canon as I want Naruto to learn a third type of magic (don't worry this is the final main one XD). This magic will be the base of the Rasengan and his dragon slayer powers will act like his did wind affinity on the Rasengan and make it into something stronger, like the Rasengan became the Rasenshuriken.**

**These were the questions which were asked before I started typing out this chapter, any questions asked prior to the making of this chapter, I will answer at the start of the next chapter.**

**Anyways on with the second chapter :D**

* * *

**Time skip: 6 years (well 1 day less)**

**Date: October 9****th ****X771**

Naruto Uzumaki was sat in front of two gravestones. The gravestones highlighted where his parents had been buried nearly 6 years ago to the date. An old man stood behind him wearing a white robe; he too was staring at the gravestones, seemingly in deep thought.

Naruto was average size for his age, still very small. He had short hair the same colour as his father's. On both of his cheeks were 3 lines which resembled whiskers (Author's note: I know that the only reason Naruto has these marks were because the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him. But I really love the marks on his face, so I decided to keep them ^.^. Instead of being caused by the Kyuubi they are now just birthmarks.) Naruto wore a black shirt which was plain apart from the white spiral in the centre of it (A/N: Gonna shorten this to "A/N" as it may be used a lot. The spiral is the Uzumaki clan symbol.) He was wearing plain orange shorts and had open toed sandals (A/N: the ninja sandals that most of the jounin, etc. wear.)

The man next to him wore the previously mentioned white robe. He also had 3 lines on either cheek, but they stretched from his eyes diagonally downwards. On his chin he had a small white beard and like his beard his spiky hair was also white. Finally, he wore a hat with the symbol for "leader" on it; clearly the hat showed that the man was the new village leader.

"Naruto…" The old man started, "it's been six years tomorrow since they passed away, why do you persist on coming here every morning to visit their graves?"

"…" Naruto was silent for a while; a slight breeze of wind brushing against his face was the only sound present. "Because, they're my parents I want to visit them every day, to tell them that I'm doing fine and the village is in good hands."

The man chuckled, "Of course it's in good hands, I wouldn't let their sacrifice be in vain. I promised to keep the village safe if anything happened to them. And you know what I never do, don't you?"

Naruto grinned, turning to the elderly man. "Yep! You never break your promises! And I promise that I'll never break my promises just like you don't and my parents didn't! That's a promise!"

The man sweat dropped at the boy's tongue twister. "You know Naruto, there are times when everybody may break a promise. Don't hate them if they do and likewise don't hate yourself if you can't keep your promises."

The small blond nodded and for a moment he looked conflicted.

"You know gramps?" Naruto the large grin returning to his face. "I won't ever fail to keep a promise, no matter what I will keep any promises I make!"

The old man smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm, "I know you will Naruto, you resemble your parents a lot, I'm sure that you will always keep your promises just like they did."

Silence fell for a few minutes whilst they silently paid their respects to the two heroes. Eventually the elderly man spoke once more.

"It's your birthday tomorrow Naruto, the villagers are doing their best to set up a huge party for you."

"…" Naruto looked over his shoulder at the man. "What about my parents? They died tomorrow, are we going to do something for them? Like usual?"

"Of course. But I'm sure that they would have wanted us to celebrate your birthday first. After all they would want you to be happy on your birthday, wouldn't they?"

"Hehe, of course. So, are you going to tell me what present you've got me?" Naruto asked in an obviously eager tone.

"No." The man grinned.

"Why not?" Naruto whined, pouting at the man.

"Don't you think it'd ruin the surprise?"

"I guess." Naruto replied with a hint of disappointment. "But I bet that some of the villagers know what you got me, I'll just ask them!" With that Naruto ran past him towards the small village in the distance.

The old man smiled. "He's a lot like you were as a child Minato…"

* * *

Naruto had made his way back to the village and walked down the busy streets of Konoha, some villagers would stop to talk to him, but he would notice the occasional villager keep their distance seemingly scared of him. He shrugged it off thinking they were trying to keep a surprise from him.

He came to a stop outside a small stand. The stand has a sign above the entrance which read, "Ichiraku's ramen". He walked through the entrance, greeted by an elderly man and young woman standing behind the counter, apart from them the place was empty.

"Hey old man Teuchi and Ayame-chan!" Naruto greeted the two, his voice filled with excitement.

"Back again Naruto? This is the 5th time this week; not that it isn't good to see you, but isn't eating just ramen bad for your health?" Teuchi questioned.

"Hehe, you're the ramen expert here, I thought you'd know more than me."

"Hmph, with the rate at which you eat ramen, I'd bet you know more about it than I do."

The two shared a laugh whilst Ayame placed a bowl of ramen in front of Naruto.

"Huh?" Naruto stared at the bowl in confusion. "I've not ordered yet Ayame-chan."

Ayame giggled at the look of confusion on the small boy's face.

"I know, think of it as an early birthday present for tomorrow and don't worry it's not the actual present."

Naruto drooled as he stared at the bowl of ramen. "Thanks Ayame-chan!"

Naruto ate the ramen at an unbelievable speed, if Teuchi and Ayame hadn't watched him eat hundreds of bowls in the last few years then they'd be at a loss for words. When he had finished he placed the bowl back down and let out a content sigh.

"Thanks for the meal!" he grinned, patting his stomach.

"You're welcome." Ayame smiled.

"By the way, do you know what gramps got me for my birthday?" He asked, the hint of eagerness returning to his voice.

Teuchi and Ayame laughed much to Naruto's confusion.

"What?" He asked.

"Hiruzen came in here earlier, he told us that you'd probably come here and ask that." Teuchi replied.

"WHAT!?" Naruto yelled in shock, "How could he know that?"

"Face it Naruto, he knows you even better than you do." Teuchi smirked, "Then again, it's not hard to predict that you'd come here since you do every day."

Naruto pouted looking towards Ayame, "Am I really that easy to predict?"

"I'm afraid so." She smiled.

"Gah." Naruto mumbled, "I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow, knowing gramps he's already told everyone in the village not to tell me."

Teuchi chuckled, "it's only a few more hours, surely you can wait that long?"

Naruto puffed out his cheeks, "I guess. Well, I'm going to go home. See you tomorrow, old man Teuchi, Ayame-chan."

"See you tomorrow." They said in union.

After Naruto had left Teuchi let out a sigh of relief. He looked below the counter where there was a box of ramen; Naruto's feet had been next to the ramen the whole time he was sat at the counter.

"That was too close" he sighed.

Ayame smirked at her father, "you should have been more prepared, after all you did know that he would come today like he does every day."

"True but he ended up coming earlier today," Teuchi grumbled, "by the way Ayame, what do you plan on giving Naruto tomorrow?"

Ayame's smirk grew wider at her father's question.

That's a secret, you'll find out when I give it him tomorrow." She replied sticking her tongue out at him.

"Come on Ayame, I'm your father surely you can tell me." He pouted.

Ayame giggled, "Jeez, you were telling Naruto off for not waiting before, but it seems that you're just as bad. If you must know I'm planning on giving him this…"

Ayame pulled a necklace from her neck holding it to her father by the string. The necklace didn't look particularly expensive, it was a blue crystal held on a thin black string. (A/N: the necklace is the first hokage's necklace that Tsunade gave Naruto, I decided that Ayame would give him the necklace instead as, from the chapter's title, Konoha isn't going to be here for much longer. Therefore, I didn't really add many of the characters just to kill them off in the second chapter XD. Ayame is like an older sister to Naruto in this story so I decide that she is going to give it to him. The necklace isn't there just for looks however, it will play an important role in future chapters.)

Teuchi smiled, "I'm sure he'll like it."

* * *

Naruto had made his way back to his house. His house was small, it had the basics that he needed such as a bedroom and kitchen but it was no different from any of the other villager's houses, in fact it was appeared to be worse.

He went straight to his bedroom and jumped on the bed laying his head on the pillow and pulling the blanket over him. He turned the small lamp off on the cabinet next to him and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Naruto's eyes opened slowly, he looked around in excitement taking in the surrounding that he expected to be his bedroom. Instead he was in a dimly lit corridor. The walls around him were made from a smooth stone which had no flaws or cracks. He looked at his feet but they were hidden in a thick black fog that drifted from the exit at the end of the corridor, or is it an entrance?

Slowly, Naruto began to walk towards the source of the fog ahead. He assumed it was a dream considering he was no longer in his bedroom. Still being a young child he was eager to explore, ignorant to any dangers that could be waiting.

He spotted a door. From the small slit at the bottom of the door came more of the fog, thicker now though. Curiosity got the better of him and he pulled the door open.

Naruto walked into the room that the door had hidden. There was more of the eerie fog coming from further inside the room, but no matter how much he squinted he wasn't able to make out the source of the shadowy mist.

After walking for what seemed to be minutes to the blond, but only a few seconds had actually passed, he stopped in front of a gigantic gate. The black mist was coming through the large openings in the gate, through the mist Naruto managed to make out two red orbs.

He began to walk closer to the gate but ended up falling over in shock. The two previously mentioned orbs moved towards him, as they got closer Naruto noticed that in the middle of the orbs were black slits. The orbs burst through the mist revealing a dragon's giant maw and soon enough it's whole face was on display, staring blankly at Naruto.

"_**So, the brat has already stumbled across my sealed state… At such a young age he should be easy to manipulate."**_

Kage's wings shot outwards dispersing the mist immediately from the area. Naruto was also blown backwards rolling across the floor. No he was rolling across a hard surface of ice. He eventually came to a stop when his body smacked into a spire of ice.

Naruto raised his gaze, once again staring at the intimidating black dragon.

"_**So the brat's pretty tough, I thought he-"**_

Kage was cut off by the loud outburst from Naruto which made Kage sweat drop, his last statement proven wrong. Naruto was crying, he rubbed his back, tears flooding from his eyes comically.

"STUPID DRAGON THAT HURT!"

Kage opened his mouth preparing a retort to the boy, but instantly clenched his jaw together stopping preventing him from replying.

"_**Gah, I'll have to bear with this kid if I'm to get out of this infernal prison." **_Kage thought.

"**Listen kid, I'm terribly sorry for putting that piece of ice there IN YOUR MINDSCAPE!" **Kage yelled before palming his face in his hand remembering his previous thoughts.

"Huh? My mindscape? What's that?" Naruto questioned.

A tick mark appeared on the dragon's forehead, "_**Don't worry, it'll all be over soon, I've just got to make him release the seal, or at least weaken it.**_

"**It means that this place is your imagination" **Kage said sarcastically, mentally cursing remembering he was talking to a 6 year old.

"Really?!" Naruto yelled. "So that means that you're not real and this is just a nightmare, correct?"

"**Yes basical- WAIT WHY DO I HAVE TO BE NIGHTMARE?!"**

Naruto grinned, "Easy because you look scary and evil. Jeez how stupid are you?"

The ice around Kage started to melt due to the intensity of his anger. His face had turned from black to red in embarrassment and he had to restrain his mouth with both of his talons to stop him from attempting to eat the boy.

After a few minutes the dragon had manage to calm itself and had returned to lying on the icy floor, his head held in one of his huge talons. He had a comical blush on his face caused from the embarrassment of a mere brat insulting him and he couldn't do anything about it.

"**Anyway, to answer your questions, yes. Me and this chamber are just parts of your imagination. However, because of that I also know everything about you, since I am you." **Kage lied.

"You do?" Naruto asked out of curiosity.

Kage's mouth split open into a mocking grin, **"Of course, for example I know that everyone close to ends up getting hurt… just like your parents."**

"Ho-how do you know that?" Naruto choked, his voice strained with confusion and guilt.

"**I've already told you, I'm a part of you brat, your thoughts are the same as mine." **He lied, **"Don't try to hide it, your parents died saving you. They died because of you."**

The light in Naruto's eyes died instantly, a mixture of pain and guilt replace it. He groaned, clutching his head in his hand.

"NO!" He cried, "Gramps said they died protecting me! That they died because they loved me!"

"**Did you forget? I am you; I am your doubt kid. My thoughts are those that you suppressed. We both know you don't believe they died because they loved you. Remember the villagers that avoid you? **A feral grin marred Kage's face, **"They know that their beloved leader died because of you kid." **

The last line made Naruto lose control.

"**They hate you."**

Naruto's hand gripped his head tightly as he cried out in pain at his conflicted feelings. Memories of the villagers who had always kept their distances filled his mind, pushing the happy memories to the far back of his head. A single thought went through Naruto's mind:

"_It's true."_

Kage felt a small tug from his stomach. He watched in interest as tendrils of shadow energy erupted around Naruto. The ice at the boy's feet was cracked in every direction. Naruto let out a deafening scream that could compete on equal ground with a dragon's roar.

Suddenly the seal on the gate in front of Kage unravelled slightly causing his still present grin to grow wider. Kage reached out, tapping the seal with one of his claws. To his annoyance, nothing happened, but he had other ways of using the weakening to his advantage.

The still screaming Naruto raised his head when he heard a sound coming from the dragon's cage; he looked in horror as one of the dragon's razor sharp claws shot straight through his chest.

* * *

Naruto lunged forwards. Sweat covered his body, dripping from him continuously. He clutched his stomach, the same spot he had watched the dragon's claw impale him in. He noticed that apart from a strange pain, there was no physical sign of the wound. He let out a sigh of relief, glad that it had only been a dream.

He went to grab the covers and pull them off of him.

His eyes widened. When he looked down, there was no sign of the blanket or even his bed. He was instead staring at the familiar pavement of his village. He looked upwards and his eyes widened further, in a look of distress.

Around Naruto was complete destruction. Not a single house remained in sight, every house in the village was completely demolished, all that remained was the debris scattered about the village. There were large scars on parts of the pavements; the scars seemed to be grouped in pairs of five.

Naruto attempted to stand up, but his legs would instantly give way and he would fall back onto the ground.

A single thought continuously crossed Naruto's thoughts: "_Where is every one?"_

His search for the other villagers was interrupted by the repetitive sound of gust of winds being blown against the ground behind him. He turned slowly and his mouth opened in fright.

In front of Naruto was a giant red dragon, its stomach was a pale yellow (A/N: can't really tell what colour it is, just look him up after I mention his name.) He had fairly normal eyes, white with a black slit in the middle and his mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth, just like Kage's. The dragon's face was also quite normal, it's most prominent feature was the point on his nose. Its tail had a row of ridged spikes trailing across the top of it and its enormous wings actually seemed worse for wear as the ends looked tattered and frayed.

Naruto had finally gotten to his feet. He stared at the dragon, neither in shock or fright but in anger.

"YOU!" Naruto roared, sending the dragon a heated glare. "It was you who did this to the village, wasn't it?"

The dragon tilted his head in confusion, _**"The boy really doesn't remember what happened…"**_

"**No it wa…" **The dragon closed his mouth, deciding it was better not to finish his sentence. **"Yes, I was the once who destroyed your village."**

Naruto's ire increased, his glare looked as if it would burn a hole in the dragon, which was quite ironic. "I'll kill you!" Naruto roared.

The dragon's eyes widened. The small boy's hands gripped his head and he let out a roar which deepened as it continued. A torrent of shadowy energy enveloped the boy causing the red dragon to back away from the power of the following shockwave. The shockwave kicked up a blanket of dust shrouding the area and hiding the boy from the dragon's gaze.

The dragon could make out a silhouette as the dust was settling. The silhouette un-nerved the dragon as it was no longer the size of the small boy, it was taller.

When the dust finally settled he could finally make out the new figure. And to say he was shocked was an understatement.

"**You…" **The dragon said cautiously, **"So you really are still alive…"**

"Hm?"

In the spot where Naruto had previously stood was a taller man, at least he looked slightly human. He had black hair stretching just below his neck and matted his hair wildly. His eyes where a deep crimson with a black slit. His skin was a light black/ash colour. His hands and feet were both bare, both of which were more like a dragon's talons and were covered in shadowy scales. The only visible clothing was a billowing black cloak which looked tattered at the end of the sleeves, but still very intimidating. The most noticeable feature was the tail wrapping around his right leg and lying on the ground in front of him; the tail was completely covered in scales and had various spikes coming from it which raked across the ground leaving small cuts.

The figures mouth split into a grin, "Do I know you?" he asked, his tone clearly mocking.

"**No, how about I introduce myself. Igneel, the fire dragon."**

The figure smirked, "Kage, nice to meet ya."

"**So it really is you…"**

Kage growled in annoyance, "I thought we've been through this. I. DO. NOT. KNOW. YOU."

Igneel chuckled emotionlessly, **"True. However, I know you. Kage, the dragon of shadow. Also the original dragon of shadow that has lived for hundreds of years, it would be shameful for a dragon not to know of you."**

Kage's ash lips formed a straight line as he stared into Igneel's eyes. "You said you're the dragon of fire, correct? Since you're a dragon of one of the primary elements you should be strong, aye?"

Igneel's eyes narrowed, **"Do you want to test the limits of my power?" **he asked in an attempt to intimidate Kage.

Kage's lips curled upwards before splitting into a gleeful grin, "Of course, you'll be a perfect opponent to get used to my human form after all these years. Though being sealed inside this brat is limiting my power severely." He admitted frowning.

"**Sealed? Who on earth managed to seal you?"**

"Well, would you believe me if I said: a very powerful human summoned a reaper which pulled out my soul and sealed it within his own child?"

"**Well, the fact that you are here after more than a thousand years already seems impossible. The question is: is it you who this impossibility revolves around? Or is it the boy you're sealed inside of?"**

Kage sneered at the dragon, "Was sealed in. He'll soon die. You see, whilst I'm in control of his body, my shadow energy is slowly absorbing him. He will die, and I will be released."

"**Hmph. That's if I don't stop you first."**

"Feel free to try, but remember, his body will also receive damage. Either way, the boy is going to die."

"**The boy's life is a small price to pay to rid the world of you." **Igneel replied bluntly.

"You say that. But I can see your true feelings. You will hesitate, or will you kill the boy, not letting him know how his village was destroyed and his friends killed by-

Igneel's talon smashed into the ground where Kage was stood, crushing him. But, the same fog from the chambers in Naruto's mindscape seeped from beneath the dragon's talon.

"Gahaha! You'll have to be quicker than-

He was interrupted again, this time by the dragon's large tail.

"DAMN IT LET ME FINISH!"

"**I thought you wanted to fight, or are you scared?"**

"Hehe, I think I like yo-

His sentence was interrupted again, this time by himself as he vanished in a flash of shadows.

"Just kidding."

Igneel heard the words too late. Kage had appeared in front of his face, his arm cocked back. As he brought the arm downwards, a torrent of shadow energy swirled around his clenched fist.

"Shadow dragon magic: hidden bullet"

His hand smashed onto Igneel's snout sending the dragon skidding backwards. Igneel was surprised, he had expected the punch to hurt, but instead it felt like a normal punch. So why was it wrapped in shadow dragon magic?

Igneel looked towards Kage who landed on the floor, he spinned once before leaning backwards on one leg his left hand outstretched towards Igneel. The hand had its middle and index finger pointing at Igneel's snout, his thumb pointing upwards making his hand look like a gun.

"Bang." Kage said mockingly, his trademark grin plastered to his face.

A blast of shadow energy exploded on Igneel's snout, covering the whole area in dust.

Kage frowned; he expected the dragon to cry out in pain, instead there was nothing but the sound of the explosion. He watched impassively as Igneel's tail shot through the dust and straight through his chest.

"Hm? Strange…" Kage poked at the tail that had stabbed through his chest. "So the brat won't take damage if I use my shadow form. Oh well."

"**Doesn't that hurt?"** Igneel asked, removing his tail out of Kage.

"Hehe, nope. My shadow form allows me to become a shadow. Physical attacks are useless as long as I'm in my shadow form." He tapped the gaping hole in his chest causing it to seal up completely, the black blood that oozed from the wound was hidden as the cloak regenerated.

"Although if you enhanced your tail with dragon magic, I'd probably be dead now."

"**No, you let that attack hit you. You tested if it would kill the boy."**

"Gah, shame it didn't kill him…"

Igneel glared at Kage, **"Why do you hate the kid so much? I thought it was his father who sealed you in him, so why take it out on the child?"**

"Hehe, don't get it wrong. I'm not targeting the boy directly, I just hate humans."

Kage felt his feet begin to heat up slightly. He looked towards the ground his mouth opening in confusion.

"Bastar-

"**Fire dragon magic: eruption****"**

A large pillar of flame shot up from the ground beneath Kage swallowing whole.

Igneel watched intently, knowing that the sneak attack wouldn't finish him. He doubted it would even damage him.

After a few seconds Kage jumped out of the flames, he directed multiple swears at Igneel whilst patting the remains of his cloak which was still alight as it slowly regenerated.

"Bastard" Kage hissed. He flung both of his arms behind him, shadow energy forming at each fingertip.

"Shadow dragon magic: Stalking death"

He thrust both arms forwards; the energy rocketed from his fingertips. Separate orbs of shadow energy sped towards Igneel, every now and then the orbs would cross over, and if Igneel wasn't in a fight for his life he would have to admit that the orbs looked amazing as they closed in on him.

Igneel held out his talon to block the attack.

"_Disperse"_ Kage thought.

The orbs of shadow separated from each other detouring around Igneel's talon and straight at his other front leg that was still on grounded.

The orbs collided with Igneel's leg and swept it from beneath him causing him to fall onto his side. The dragon let out a pain stricken roar clutching the leg with his other leg's talon.

"Gahaha." Kage walked in front of the dragon's fallen body, he was stood conveniently in the dragon's shadow.

"My magic isn't that straight forwards. I can manipulate shadows as much as I want to, after all I am a shadow."

Kage bent down picking up a rock from the crumbling pavement. He rolled it through his finger before throwing it up a catching it. As soon as he caught the rock he instantly flicked his fingers forwards launching the rock at Igneel who had managed to stand but was still nursing his leg.

The rock became wrapped in shadow as it flew towards Igneel, the cloak of shadow took the appearance of a spear which left a small cut on Igneel's cheek before dispersing, the rock falling harmlessly behind the dragon.

"See?" Kage mocked.

"…" Igneel looked conflicted, **"It seems that I can't hold back anymore, I'll kill you… **

…**and the boy."**

Igneel's arm shot out, it swept along the pavement forcing Kage to jump. Whilst in mid-air Kage looked downwards at a row of razor sharp teeth, his hand shot out grabbing onto Igneel's horn and pulling himself out of harm.

"Shadow dragon magic: Shadow dragon's guillotine**" **

Kage fell head first at Igneel's arched back, a cloak of shadow energy encased him taking an arrow-like appearance. Just as he was about to make connection Igneel sprung out of the way with incredible speed. Igneel was now in the air behind Kage one of his hind legs still on the ground and his chest twisted, his talon was aiming to crush Kage in his falling form.

"_Fast and flexible. Not bad."_

"Shadow dragon magic: Shadow cannon**"**

Kage spun around a spiral of shadow in front of his open mouth. He swallowed the energy causing his stomach to expand, with a fierce roar a burst of shadow shot from his mouth colliding with the incoming talon.

They both struggled for power as their attacks connected. Igneel's talon had streaks of flames flickering off it, most of the streaks were his trademark typical orange flame colour but every now and then there would be the occasional black flickers.

After only a few seconds of struggling Igneel's palm slammed into the ground, he assumed that gravity had finally taking its toll on Kage. He lifted up his talon checking if he had hit Kage and wasn't surprised to see Kage's trademark mist.

Kage re-appeared behind Igneel and began to take advantage. He let out a groan when he spotted Igneel's tail sweeping across the ground towards him causing him to once again jump into the air to avoid it.

"**Fire dragon magic: Fire dragon's roar****"**

"Secret shadow dragon magic: Eternal eclipse"

Igneel's attack fired first, hurtling towards Kage desperately. Kage on the other hand spun repeatedly in the air, a mass of shadow energy materializing around his palm. All the fingers on the hand were pointing forwards making it look like a knife as the energy wrapped around it.

Just as the blast of flame was about to hit him, he lashed his hand towards it vertically, all of the energy shot outwards to meet the flames. His blast was wild; it clashed with the flames, quickly overwhelming it. Igneel had to jump to the side to narrowly escape the destructive attack. He took a moment to glance at the aftermath of Kage's attack. An enormous scar was left stretching to a mountain, well the remains of a mountain.

Kage landed in front of Igneel who had already begun his next assault. With incredible footwork, Kage danced around the multiple swipes of Igneel's claws. Just as he took another step towards Igneel, escaping the claws, the dragon's tail embedded in the pavement in front of him. The tail tore through the pavement pulling up tiles and dirt in an attempt to split Kage down the middle, which once again ended up hitting the mist.

This time, Kage appeared in the air above Igneel a shadowy spear in his hand, he launched the spear at the clueless dragon which tore through him easily to Kage's surprise.

"**Fire dragon magic: Hallucination****"**

Kage watched what he thought to be Igneel disperse into visible heat just before his back flared with a sharp pain and he was sent hurtling to the ground below.

"Guh," Kage groaned, he threw himself out of the crater he had made and cracked his back whilst moaning in pain.

"_Stupid dragon…"_ His own tail raised in front of his face, just in time to block Igneel's diving tail smash.

Kage glared at the dragon that was stood in front of him, their tails still clashing. His usual mocking aura had been replaced with a cold, intimidating one which sent shivers down the dragon's spine.

"Enough." Kage ordered, his tail flung Igneel's away, seemingly with ease. "I'm done playing with you; I should have learnt my lesson after being sealed away for underestimating a mere human."

Kage's hands hovered in front of him; they looked as if they were holding an invisible ball between them. Flickers of shadows began to form and soon after a wild sphere of the energy formed in between his palms.

"Secret shadow dragon magic: endless moon"

The wild energy stabilized, leaving a sphere which was pure black; a few bubbles of shadow rose up from the sphere but would disperse after a few second.

"**Wha-what is that?" **Igneel mumbled in shock. He could feel the pure amount of power emanating from the sphere, compared to any of the other attacks they had used he estimated this was on a whole new scale.

"**Are you trying to destroy Fiore?"** Igneel asked in awe of the attack's power.

"Hehe, I'm afraid I can't do that whilst the boy is still alive, pity he survived your hit. However, the attack will most likely destroy a few villages close by." Kage's grin had grown as large as it could get, his tongue brushed against the rows of teeth savouring the look of despair on Igneel's face.

"**What about us? There's no way we will survive."**

"Gahaha. There's no way that YOU will survive. I will simply regenerate after the attack is over. Well Igneel, it's been a pleasure meeting you, but I-

Kage's eyes widened, he suddenly dropped the devastating attack and began to hold his head in his hands letting out pain filled groans.

"**What?" **Igneel wondered watching the peculiar sight.

"GAH! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" The voice no longer belonged to Kage but instead the original owner of the body, Naruto.

Igneel watched the cloak around Kage begin to disperse and his hair revert from black to blond.

"**Impossible!"** Kage's draconic voice screamed as Naruto fought for control of his body. **"How can a little brat manage to get free of my control?!"**

Kage's deeper, dragon voice let out a final roar before the skin colour returned to normal and they body began to shrink. The tail and talons slowly disappeared and eventually all that remained was a naked Naruto lying face down on the ground.

Igneel cautiously walked to the lifeless form of the child expecting it to be a trap. Instead he heard a light snoring coming from the boy. He scooped up the boy in his talon; his huge fingers began to curl into a fist which would effectively crush the boy.

He stopped.

Igneel's gaze rested on a necklace around the boy's neck. A memory flashed through his head, about how Naruto had gained the necklace and who had given it to him. He let out a sigh, knowing that the decision he was about to make could backfire in the future.

He curled his fingers around the boy, gently however. He took off into the sky above him and whilst he flew away from the village a single thought went through his mind,

"_**This kid may have the potential to break the cycle, it's a longshot, but defiantly possible."**_

* * *

**Chapter 2 finished, **

**So it's pretty obvious what Naruto's second dragon slayer power will be now. I thought that fire and shadow was quite ironic since 'hokage' means fire shadow :P. Of course I didn't pick it for that reason, I chose them because I thought it was an interesting combination and already have an idea for the combination attacks that I will use.**

**I purposely left out how Naruto managed to break out of Kage's control and how the village was destroyed, both of which will be revealed in future chapters.**

**The chapter is officially the last one that will include anything to do with Konoha as it obviously isn't there anymore XD, there will be mentions to it later in, but it won't play a major role which is why I decided it would be destroyed.**

**Once again I will try to answer any questions you have at the start of the next chapter**

**Also, thanks to everyone who followed/favourited and those who reviewed.**

**Thanks for reading (^.^)/**


	3. Chapter 3: Erza

**Fairy tail's Burning will**

Chapter 3: Erza

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

"Talking/_Thoughts"_

"Attacks/**Dragon (or demon) attacks**

"**Dragon (or demon) talking/**_**Thoughts"**_

* * *

**Answer to reviews from chapter 2.**

**chins4tw – Of course Naruto will run into Rogue eventually. I plan for them to meet pre-canon and Rogue will be the same or around Naruto's age when they meet.**

**Sir sleeps all day everyday – Really? I only briefly checked if the whisker marks were caused by the Kyuubi before typing the chapter, so I didn't really know if it was 100% correct or not as I just looked at the first answer on a random forum. But I guess you know more than me here since I just checked a random forum xD.**

**SinOfDisaster – He will be calmer in battle than the usual Naruto. Since he is a shadow dragon slayer he will still have his clones, but he won't use them as much. As for the split personality, I doubt he would change much in battle, but of course he does have Kage inside of him, Kage won't have a hateful influence like the Kyuubi and I aim for them to have a slight partnership (not fully trusting of each other, but they won't say that to each other's faces) very early on. Kage however won't share Naruto's views on battle, such as were Naruto would be more merciful, and Kage would be the ruthless side. As for the more generic thing, as you probably guessed from the chapter title he will meet Erza a lot earlier than the tower, I think she was 11 when she was in the tower (correct me if I'm wrong), in this chapter it is only a few days from Naruto's 6****th**** birthday and they will be the same age. He will save her from the tower, but it won't be the generic "he gets captured too and breaks out" or "he busts into the tower and takes out every guard in sight". At the tower I want to develop the shadow dragon powers as I just made random ones up with Kage so that it didn't undermine Naruto's shadow dragon powers when he gets them. Therefore at the tower there will be stronger enemies than random mages and will also have significance later in the story for another arc i've thought of. Instead of breaking into the tower, Naruto will most likely use a more stealth orientated route using his shadow dragon slayer powers and won't just save Erza alone and make her look weaker. I love it when she first discovered her powers, if Naruto shows up takes care of the guards and saves Rob, then it won't be as good a display of her powers. So Naruto will probably be fighting elsewhere rather than babysitting Erza and making her look weaker, since I want to make Erza stronger than she is. I think she doesn't have to much of a style since she just uses her re-equip and barley does anything like controlling the blades like she did in the riot, I have a few differences in her move set that I will give her to make her seem like more of and s class mage (Not that she isn't awesome already.)**

**Denito – Already talked to you through messages, huge thanks for helping develop the story. Don't want to go through what we talked about since it would probably be longer than the actual chapter!**

**AFantasticMan – Don't know what happened with the underlines, probably disappeared when I uploaded the file. Also who said that they didn't despise Naruto for having it sealed within him? There are still those that hate him, but since it was rushed I didn't want to go into too much detail and wanted to get the story away from the prologue-ish chapters.**

**Nomenclature – I only put emotes in the start and end where I talk about the story to the readers or in the "a/n (author's notes)" which once again isn't part of the story. I include emotes in these so that it is easier to understand my emotions towards the topics.**

**Starting to notice that I go off on one when answering questions! The reason that this chapter has taken longer for me to type is a combination of 2 weeks of constant exams and a week of sickness! But I only have a few exams remaining so I once again have a lot more spare time to update the story. Thanks to anyone who favourite/followed and those who reviewed! Well anyway, time for the next chapter.**

* * *

**Time skip: 5 days**

**Date: October 15****th**** X771**

Naruto let out a groan as he awakened. His eyes slowly opened taking in the surroundings. The floor was a dark black rock which was covered in deep scratches, the walls mirrored the design of the floor but the scratches let off a dim red glow.

He pushed himself backwards so that he was sitting on the floor of the new area. He quickly looked over his body, surprised that there was no sign of injuries but he was more surprised that he was in a completely different place than when he had passed out.

"_Where am I? Last thing I remember was that huge dragon that… destroyed the village."_

He looked over his shoulder at what appeared to be light coming from an opening in the cave.

"_The exit?"_ He asked himself.

He pushed himself to his feet just to fall over before managing to take a step.

"_Strange, my body has no signs of harm, so why do I feel so weak?"_

Groaning, he once more pushed himself to his feet and leaned against the wall for support. He was shocked to feel heat coming from the cracks in the wall but he pushed it to the back of his mind as he limped towards the exit of the cave.

"**Leaving so soon?" **A voice boomed from behind Naruto causing him to fall over in shock.

Naruto flipped on to his back and pushed himself up so that he was once more sitting on the cave's cold floor. He was staring at a huge red dragon, the same one that had supposedly destroyed his village and everyone in it.

"Yo-you." He stuttered, "You're that dragon that destroyed the village!"

The dragon rested his face into his front claw as it stared calmly at the young boy, **"Who ever said that I was the one who destroyed your precious village?"**

Naruto looked at the dragon blankly, "where you?" he asked making the dragon sweat drop.

"**Yes."** He answered his lips curling upwards into a mocking smirk.

"WHY?" Naruto yelled in anger.

Igneel chuckled; his tail swept from behind him and blocked the exit to the cave.

"**I'll make you a deal brat."** He held up two of his large claws,** "2 months. If you can survive and return here after two months then I will tell you why I destroyed you village. Of course you can just run away, I won't chase after you and you may be able to lead a relatively normal life. Well as normal as it can be without knowing why your village was destroyed… or what that mark is on your stomach."**

Naruto's eyes widened, "Gramps always told me that was a birth mark, just like the marks on my cheeks."

"**Do you believe everything that you are told? The truth behind that mark was hidden from you for a reason; maybe you are better off not knowing about it."**

Naruto's expression softened, his anger leaving him. "Gramps would never lie to me" he croaked in disbelief.

"**If you want a hint, take a look at your shadow."**

Naruto squinted at the ground; no matter how hard he looked he couldn't find his shadow.

"What the… where is my shadow?"

"**Sorry, that's the only clue you get. Unless you're dumb enough to return in two months."**

Naruto didn't respond, he was too busy taking in everything he had been told.

"I want to know what happened." He looked up, a look of determination marring his face. "I don't care how stupid it is, I will return in 2 months!"

Igneel's smirk softened into a smile that went unnoticed by Naruto. His tail slid from behind Naruto revealing the exit for him.

"**Go. Return in two months and I'll tell you the truth behind the seal and your village's fate."**

Naruto didn't move confusing Igneel.

"Promise me that you'll keep to your word." Naruto demanded.

Igneel held out one of his claws in front of Naruto, **"Fine, I promise"**

Naruto took hold of the tip of the claw and shook it. He turned away from the dragon and walked towards the exit, leaving the dark cave.

As he made his way out of the cave he was hit by a gust of freezing cold wind. He shivered from the shock of the transition from the warm cave into the freezing outside. He looked around as he reached the outside of the cave. He immediately heard the crunch under his feet and spotted the thick layer of snow covering the floor.

Naruto walked towards the edge of the ledge that he was standing on.

"GAH!" He yelled falling backwards onto the ground.

"**Something wrong?" **Igneel's voice came from behind him.

"Why are we so high up?!" Naruto shouted.

The cave that Naruto and Igneel stood outside of was at the top of a snowy mountain. The mountain looked strange from afar. The whole mountain was covered in snow but the tip was pitch black and had large cracks that glowed an eerie red. Most who saw the mountain assumed it was a volcano and stayed far away from it, little did they know that a worse threat inhabited the mountain.

"**Ah, I forgot to mention, I decided to live all the way up here so that no humans would stumble across me. The mountain itself is actually rather cosy." **He added with a yawn.

"How do I get down…" He saw Igneel's face light up, "without dying!" he added quickly.

Igneel pouted, he picked Naruto up in his talon and dangled him over the ledge. His other talon's claw pointed to a small lake near a forest in the distance, the lake was at the edge of a forest, a waterfall connecting it with another mountain.

"Wait what do you me…" He was cut off as Igneel stretched his talon behind him, "WAIT YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS?!"

"**Don't worry it's perfectly safe… I think."**

Igneel launched Naruto from the mountain towards the lake. He ignored the boy's distant cries and watched as a large splash occurred after a few second.

"_**I wonder is he survived. Ah well, I'll find out in two months anyway."**_

* * *

Naruto gasped for air as he managed to pull himself out of the lake. He groaned, lying on the grass next to the lake. Looking around, he noticed that there was no snow anymore which he welcomed since it was better than the freezing cold. He pushed himself to his feet before stumbling forwards and sliding against a tree for support.

"_I'm going to need to find shelter for the next two months, then some food. I've already got water I just need to stay near the lake."_

After his breath had steadied he began to follow the lake in an attempt to find shelter. After a few minutes of walking he followed the lake to its end where he found the waterfall that he had seen from the top of Igneel's mountain

The waterfall was rather calm; it was falling gently making barley any noise as the water poured into the lake. Naruto spotted large stones in the water which were big enough for him to step onto. With a big leap he jumped from the edge of the lake onto one of the stones, he repeated the process until he was stood in front of the water fall. Naruto's eyes focused on the waterfall, he was sure that he could see something through the waterfall.

"_Well I've not got much to lose."_

With a final leap Naruto threw himself into the waterfall. He broke through the surface of the waterfall and crashed onto a grass-covered floor on the other side.

Naruto grinned gleefully as he jumped to his feet, "That's shelter covered! Now I've just got to find food."

Naruto was stood in a large corridor. The walls were similar to Igneel's cave without the glowing red scratches and were a lighter shade of black. He walked down the wide corridor wondering what he would find further in the cave.

"Wow…" Naruto reached the end of the corridor and was in a state of awe at what he saw. The corridor led to a huge cavern. The whole cavern was empty with just a plain grass floor and a small pool near the edge of the cavern.

Naruto noticed light in the middle of the cavern. He looked at the ceiling of the room where there was an opening which let in a small amount of light from the sky.

"Hehe this place is great" Naruto grinned. _"I still need to find food though."_

Naruto gave the cavern a final look over. He noticed a small detail, two rectangle holes in part of the wall which were large enough for him to fit and sleep in.

"_Well I guess it's better than sleeping on the ground." _

He heard his stomach growl and blushed in embarrassment. _"Going to need to find that food quickly. Doubt there's a chance of finding ramen."_

Naruto left the cave the same way he had entered. He began to make his way into the forest in search of the much needed food. He only walked a few steps in before noticing the trees had various types of fruit in.

"_Wow, all the necessities in one area. Now I just need to hope there's enough fruit for two months… and find a way to get it through the waterfall without it being drenched."_

Naruto removed his shirt placing it flat out on the ground. He then climbed up the trees using the branches as leverage and pulled different pieces of fruit down and placing them on his shirt, he repeated the process until his shirt had enough fruit on it. He wrapped his shirt around the shirt so that he could carry it all with ease.

"_Now I need to get it back to the cavern."_

Naruto leaped from stone to stone until he was once again stood in front of the waterfall. He decided to just leap through again in the hopes that the shirt would absorb most of the water. Though it didn't work out as expected the fruit was still okay to eat.

Naruto returned to the cavern and placed the fruit next to the make-shift bed. He proceeded to eat some of the fruit his face scrunching up as he ate. _"Defiantly not as good as ramen, but I guess I'll just have to get used to it for the next two months. Well then again I doubt I'll get any ramen from that stupid dragon."_

Naruto lay down in one of the rectangle slots. He shifted uncomfortably onto his side, he closed his eyes blocking out the quiet but still present waterfall. Ever so slowly Naruto fell asleep.

* * *

**Naruto's mindscape**

Naruto's eyes snapped open. He spotted the black fog drifting near his feet and instantly knew where he was.

"_This place again? Am I having that same dream from before? I wonder if that dragon is still there."_

Naruto retraced his route into the large area; he began walking up to the gate and wasn't surprised at the piercing red eyes amidst the shadowy fog. This time he held his ground as the dragon's wings shot outwards, dispersing the fog.

"I knew it! You're that dragon from before." Naruto shouted.

"**Hm? What do you want now brat?" **Kage growled his annoyance clearly present.

"It's not like I wanted to come here… I just fell asleep and ended up here like last time."

"**But you must want something if you decided to want to find me in this place again. Hurry up and tell me, I don't have all day… oh wait I do." **

"Well I guess I wanted to ask you if you know what happened at the village, how it was destroyed and where everyone is. Since you're part of me I thought you would've seen what happened."

"**How stupid are you?" **Kage snapped, **"Think about it, if I were part of you, how would I know what happened if you don't?"**

"Oh… So you don't know what happened either?"

"**Hahaha. Do you remember what that dragon told you earlier today? Do you trust what everybody tells you?"**

"What are you talking about?" Naruto muttered.

"**I am not part of you. I am separate from you and was sealed inside of you because of your parents. Whilst you didn't see what happened to your precious village, I saw everything."** For the first time in the conversation, Kage's trademark smirk appeared. **"Would you like to know what happened?"**

Naruto was speechless. The creature that had cause the death of his parents, their sacrifice for him, was standing in front of him.

"So… the thing my parents sealed away was you? And they sealed you inside of me? Then the mark on my stomach… is that keeping you in here?" Naruto gasped in shock.

"**Yes. However, initially the seal was weak, weak enough for me to manipulate you and escape… only that backfired. Anyway, after I weakened the seal the first time, it got stronger… much stronger, to the point where I can no longer escape."**

"So you can't escape anymore?"

"**Unfortunately, yes." **Kage muttered darkly.

"So if you escaped does that mean that you're the one who destroyed the village? If so, what happened to everyone?" Naruto demanded.

"**No."**

"Well then, who?!What is that other dragon? Answer me!"

"**It wasn't me or the other dragon. I can tell you who if you would like me to."** Kage's face was serious, a look that was rare to appear on his face.

"No… I already know who it was." Naruto turned from the dragon and began walking back to the entrance of the area.

He stopped after a few steps, his hands clenching into fists.

"It was me, wasn't it?!"

His words echoed throughout the room. Kage stared at the boy's back, an emotion he had never felt before. Guilt.

Kage watched as the small boy fell to his knees, his sobs piercing the dragon's cold shell.

"_**Why do I feel guilty for this brat? So what if he lost his home and friends? I lost more on that day."**_ A memory flashed through Kage's mind: a dragon with the power to obliterate islands, a mage who could cast spells of absolute death and the remains of hundreds of dragon's as his home lay in ruins.

"**Listen kid. You and I are a lot alike. I lost everything just like you have: my home, my friends, my family and most of all myself. It was my fault that you ended up like this, I weakened the seal allowing you to take my power… using my power you destroyed your village."**

Naruto rubbed his eyes, getting rid of any remaining tears. "How did you lose everything precious to you?"

Kage was shocked, he expected the child to loathe him, he had admitted to causing his village's destruction, yet the boy instead was curious at what happened in his past.

"**You're not angry?"**

"No. I get why you did it. You had nothing left, you were alone, and you just wanted someone to feel your pain."

Kage looked at Naruto in confusion, **"Had?"**

"Yup." Naruto looked up at the dragon, his bright smile present on his face. "You're right, we're the same now, there's no changing the past. Right now we've only got each other so there's no point in hating each other, right? What do you say? We'll be there for each other from now on?"

Kage's gaped at Naruto, shocked at his forgiveness. _**"Even though I only fought you once Minato. I can tell this child is a lot like you."**_

Kage moved one of his claws through a slot in the gate; he held it in front of the young blond.

"**Sure, you know, you're a lot like your father."**

Naruto grinned; he reached out to shake the dragon's claw only for his hand to go through it.

"**Ah. I forgot, ever since the seal re-strengthened, we've been bonded together."**

"What do you mean?"

"**If you die, I die. Our souls are connected from now on. Most likely a counter-measure your father placed so that I can't hurt you in your mindscape. It didn't work the first time when the seal weakened but it's in full effect now."**

"Are you going to tell me how you lost everything?"

"**Eventually, yes. But it's not something you need to know yet, if you want I'll tell you what happened when you were consumed by my powers, what happened to you village."**

"No. It's not something I need to know right now." Naruto laughed when he saw Kage sweat drop.

"**Are you still planning on going back to the dragon? I've already told you the truth about what happened."**

"Yes, I need to apologise for blaming him all this time."

"**Well, until then I can train you to use my magic for the next two months."**

"Wait, your magic?! You mean you can teach me magic?"

"**In a way, yes. Dragons can teach a special magic called dragon slayer magic. It takes years to learn the magic but I can teach you a few basics in the next two months, the rest I will teach you over time. We'll start tomorrow."**

Naruto nodded cheerfully, "So… How do I get out of here?"

Kage sweat dropped once again,** "Just ask yourself to leave or something."**

Naruto sighed, he closed his eyes in an attempt to do as the dragon suggested but snapped them open instantly.

"Wait. You haven't even told me your name."

"**Kage."**

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"**Hurry and get out brat. I need some sleep if I'm to start teaching dragon slayer magic again."**

"I already told you I don't know how!"

"**HURRY UP AND FIND A WAY!"**

Naruto lay down on the floor made of ice. Kage looked at him in confusion.

"**Aren't you cold?"**

"No the ice is strangely warm." Naruto closed his eyes for the second time that night.

"Goodnight Kage."

"**Whatever."**

* * *

"Shadow dragon's piercing fang!"

Naruto's fingers were all held together and pointed towards Kage. Kage was in his normal human form, his hair was shorter than before and the cloak was no longer torn. The most significant change was the lack of scales and that his tail was no longer present, unlike before he could now pass of as a human apart from the ash coloured skin.

Naruto's hand had a small torrent of shadow dragon magic swirling around it, he kept charging at Kage thrusting his hand outwards in an attempt to land the attack on Kage. In response Kage simply stepped to the side, grabbing Naruto's wrist and throwing him into the pond at the other side of the cavern.

"That's the 27th time I've thrown you into the pond Naruto, also your control over the magic is poor, try hitting the wall with the attack. Try not to miss." Kage mocked.

Naruto pulled himself out of the pond and stood slightly away from the wall.

"Shadow dragon's piercing fang"

Naruto's attack hit the wall, the shadow magic acting like a drill around his hand. After a few seconds the shadow magic disappeared and Naruto took his hand away from the wall.

"What?!" Naruto shouted.

"See? You lack the destruction behind your attack without the proper manipulation and control of the magic. When we opened the seal slightly earlier it let you use some of my power and also allowed me to become your shadow, however if you can't learn to simply control the power then it's useless to teach you anything else." Kage commented.

The wall were Naruto had struck had little more than a scratch on it.

"Honestly I was wrong to try and teach you an attack before you learn to properly control it. However, there is a technique I can teach you that will help you to learn to control it and will help you in combat." Kage sighed, "If you can't learn this then you're hopeless, this only took my last pupil two days to learn and you have an advantage since I'm sealed inside of you."

"Why is having you sealed inside me an advantage?" Naruto asked.

"Easy, most dragons have to fully teach their pupils how to access the magic whilst you already have that access through me; all you need to do is to learn to control it. The technique I'm going to teach you allows me to guide you through the process as your shadow." Kage replied.

"Ok, so what do I need to do?"

Kage walked up to Naruto promptly dispersing into a shadowy mist which joined with Naruto's feet forming a shadow which resembled Kage's appearance.

"_Firstly, focus on a shadow around the area. This is where I can help you, since I am a dragon of shadows I can easily extend my current form as your shadow around the area in front of you, the good part is this extension is only visible to you and me." _The makeshift shadow at Naruto's feet began to extend until it formed a circle around the boy.

"_After focusing on the shadow try to pull the energy from the shadow towards you."_ Kage commanded.

Naruto did as he said; he concentrated fully on part of the shadow around him and when he felt the power from the shadow he attempted to pull it towards him. Suddenly Naruto appeared in the air, he wasn't over the part of the shadow where he had been concentrating but he had defientatly moved in its direction. He was about to fall to the ground when he re-appeared once more at his target spot before falling to the ground with a thud.

"What the… I moved again?" Naruto muttered in confusion.

"I can move you myself if needed, the extension of the shadow is myself so just try to think that you are pulling me towards you, if our powers balance out then you will be able to move to the area perfectly, if my power is stronger you will reach the position but you won't have a… comfortable landing."

"What if my power is stronger?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Gahaha. I'm afraid that's impossible, if it was ever to happen where you pulled me towards you then the whole shadow would be pulled to you, most likely resulting in an explosion. But I doubt you could ever exceed my power."

Kage looked over at Naruto who had pushed himself to his feet, he was staring at his hand which was still scratched from his previous training on the "piercing fang"

"That's enough training for today. Tomorrow I'll keep teaching you how to control the shadow dragon magic and balance it with mine, if you get that down then I'll go back to teaching you the four basic attacks. If you can learn the basic attacks within the two month period we can get working on manipulating the magic earlier than expected. Anyway get some sleep, I'm not going to let you slack off."

With that Kage disappeared back into his form as Naruto's shadow.

Naruto lay down in one of the rectangle slots.

* * *

**Time skip: 8 days**

**Date: 24****th**** October X771**

Naruto jumped through the waterfall landing on the stepping stone balancing so he didn't fall off. He jumped from stone to stone until landing on the grass near the river.

"_Jeez Kage you eat way too much, I'm starting to wonder is there'll be any fruit in the forest left after a month."_

"_It's not my fault the fruit tastes terrible." _Kage complained.

"_So because it tastes terrible you have to eat more of it?"_

"_Yes."_

"_You're an idiot…"_

"_SHUT UP BRAT!"_

Naruto froze as he heard footsteps behind him, he had reached a tree which had quite a lot of fruit on it but it had required him to walk deeper into the forest than usual.

The boy turned just in time to duck a swipe from a spear. He followed the spear to its owner, there were two masked men stood in front of him, both of their smirks were present since the bottom half of their masks were missing. (A/N: Couldn't really find a clear picture of the guards of the tower of heaven.) The attacking guard's foot slipped forwards closing the gap between the two, he thrust the spear forwards attempting to impale the child.

"GAH!" Naruto landed on the branch of aforementioned tree courtesy of Kage.

"_Was there any point teaching you the technique if you're so slow at using it?"_ Kage sighed.

Naruto pulled himself onto the branch so that he was sat on it.

"_Don't worry, I can take care of this. We can wait till they get bored or I can scare them away by throwing some of the fruit at them."_ Naruto said.

Naruto plucked an apple from one of the branches above him; he proceeded to throw the apple in the men's direction with all his strength… only for it land on the ground in front of them.

"_You have to be kidding me… I hate to burst your bubble kid but your master plan failed. Time for plan: go down there and put the techniques I taught you into practice. Or we could wait up here for the next month and a half for them to get bored…" _Kage grumbled.

To Kage's surprise the two men muttered something to each other; one of them took the apple from the ground proceeding to take a bite out of it before dropping it to the floor and walking off.

"_See? I told you it woul…"_

"_LIKE HELL THAT WAS JUST LUCK!"_ Kage roared.

"_Meh, you're just jealous that my plan worked better than yours."_

Naruto dispersed into the trademark black fog of Kage's and reappeared over the ground.

"_You know? You are such a sore loser Kage."_

"Ack!" Naruto fell to the ground once again courtesy of Kage.

Naruto picked himself off the ground with a groan. He cautiously looked around for a trace of the two men.

"_Do you think they're waiting for us?"_ Naruto questioned.

"_Of course they are"_ Kage snorted, _"Go near the trees where they left, they're most likely waiting to ambush you."_

"_So you want me to walk into an ambush?! This is why I don't listen to your 'master plans'"_

"_JUST DO IT ALREADY!"_

Naruto cautiously approached the trees near where the two men had retreated. He hesitantly took another step so that he was in in between two of the trees, almost instantly he heard a rustling above him and the two men jumped down from the trees in an attempt to land on Naruto.

"_What now?"_ Naruto asked frantically, he shifted backwards getting ready to avoid the descending spears.

"_Relax," _Kage said a hint of excitement in his voice, _"I'll take care of this."_

Naruto jumped backwards to avoid the spears. Just as the men were about to reach the ground, a blur sped past Naruto to the spot where he was previously stood.

SNAP!

Naruto was shocked at the sight in front of him. Kage had gripped the two men by their throats, but the most shocking part was that their spears had snapped from contact with Kage's shoulders.

"Wha-what the hell?!" One of them men yelled, dropping the remains of his spear.

The other man had a stronger resolve, instead of dropping his spear in fear he used the jagged wooden shaft in his hand to attempt to jab out Kage's eye. Kage simply moved his head to the side avoiding the thrust, he then removed his hand from the man's neck letting him drop slightly before his open palm connected with the man's jaw sending him flying into a tree.

Kage frowned as looked at the man slumped against the tree.

"Ya know, this isn't anywhere near as fun as I thought it'd be… You could at least try and fight back." Kage grumbled as he threw the scared man in the unconscious man's direction. "Hurry up and get out of here, we've not got time to be dealing with you guys."

The man nodded quickly, he picked up the other man and fled further into the forest.

Kage turned to Naruto, the boy in question had a huge grin on his face.

"What?" Kage grumbled.

"How did you do that?! You broke their weapons without even touching them!" Naruto cheered, his grin grew even wider.

"Huh? That was just my scales." Kage answered.

"Hm? You have scales? I haven't seen any…"

Kage grumbled something which went unheard by Naruto; he took hold of the right sleeve of his cloak and pulled it up. His arm was completely normal for a moment, until shadowy black scales appeared.

"That's because I make them appear. They act like armour and are extremely hard to break, as you just saw they're harder than steel. All I did was form scales at the point where the spears hit me and it simply snapped them."

"What's its name?" Naruto pestered.

"Name? It doesn't have one. In fact, most of my attacks don't have names… I just shout what the attack looks like." Kage noted dull-fully.

"Wait. Then what about the piercing fang attack you taught me? You gave that a name."

"Yeah, and It took me forever to think of such a simple name… why do you think I've not named the scales or the teleporting technique? If you want a name for anything else I teach you then you can think of it."

"Anyway," Kage sighed, "Let's hurry up and collect some fruit and get back to the cavern, looks like I'm going to have to give you some combat experience since you were useless in that situation."

Naruto groaned, "Even more training? We've been training for days now… when do I get a break?"

"You can have a break when you learn the four basic attacks, after that break I'll be teaching you to manipulate the shadow dragon magic. We'll also be having regular sparring matches so you can get some combat experience."

"What about that scale thing? Can you teach me that?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"No, I only have control of the scales because I'm a dragon. There is one technique that grants a dragon slayer the scales, however no dragon slayer par one has ever been able to control it on their own will… and I guess you can say that he is and isn't still around…"

"Huh? What'd you mean Kage?" Naruto muttered in confusion.

"Nothing. Hurry up and get the fruit."

* * *

**Time skip: 7 days**

**Date: 31****st**** October X771**

"Okay, time to show me what you've learnt in the last 15 days kid." Kage taunted.

"So I just have to fight you? I don't have to win or anything?" Naruto inquired.

Kage held out a bell in reply. "The challenge is you have to take this bell using the techniques i've taught you these past few days."

"Really? I just have to take a bell from you? That's it?"

"Not just a bell Naruto. I've used this bell to test all my students. Want to know how many have succeeded in taking it from me?" Kage smirked. "None to date… so what makes you think you will be able to take it?"

Kage heard a jingle in front of him. He looked down and saw Naruto holding the bell in the palm of his hand.

"Easy, you were too busy being proud about your record that you practically gave me the bell." Naruto said with a bland expression on his face.

"THAT DOESN'T COUNT!" Kage roared, snatching the bell from Naruto and tied it to the waist of his cloak.

"Jeez you really are a sore loser." Naruto sniffed.

"Whatever," Kage growled, "we'll start on my go…"

Kage watched Naruto standing across from him, the boy took no stance. He just replicated Kage and stared back.

"What? Not going to get into a fighting stance?" Kage questioned.

"This is my fighting stance." Naruto smirked, "I find it easier to not adopt a stance."

"Why?"

"For the same reason you do, it's harder to read someone who has no fighting stance. Well that and most stances have an obvious opening that someone like you could exploit with ease." Naruto chuckled.

"Hm? What weakness." Kage asked a hint of surprise in his voice.

"You're a shadow. Your opponents back is their clear weak point. A fighting stance focuses on blocking a frontal attack from your opponent… you however can attack from anywhere." Naruto smiled, "I know your weaknesses since we share most of them."

"Not bad." Kage stated, "But…. What happens if you can't react to my attacks?"

"Haha, I know I stand no chance of being able to counter your attacks. That's why i'm not going to let you have the offensive." Naruto said in confidence.

Kage raised an eyebrow at the boy, "Interesting… well then. Start whenever you're ready."

"What? I thought it was on your go?" Naruto pouted.

Kage grinned, "Well, you seem to want to have the early offence so i'll humour you. I'll even add a victory condition… if you can land a clean hit on me then you win."

"_Hn? He's toying with me… he probably wants me to attack from behind so he can show off. Then again…"_ Naruto thought.

Naruto burst into the thick shadowy mist, Kage had already expected this and spun around, in the process he grabbed Naruto's hand which was engulfed in shadow dragon magic.

"Predictable." Kage mocked.

"Really?" Naruto chuckled, his body burst into the mist once more.

"2 clones?" Kage groaned, "You seem to have taken a liking to that technique."

"Shadow dragon's piercing fang"

Kage eye's widened slightly, "_Above?!" _Kage's hand shot up grabbing Naruto's arm by the wrist and throwing him away from him.

"Haha bet you didn't see that coming!" Naruto promptly stuck his tongue out at Kage childishly.

"Hmph too bad it didn't wor…" Kage was cut off as he heard a jingle from his waste. He looked downwards and saw a shadowy hand reaching for the bell. Kage instinctively grabbed the hand and dragged it away from the bell, once again throwing the boy away from him. He glanced to where he had previously saw Naruto, but only wisps of black mist remained. "_A third clone…"_

"Shadow dragon's slash"

Kage's vision returned to the Naruto he had just thrown, the aforementioned Naruto had regained his footing in front of Kage. His hands weren't fully clenched into a fist instead all his fingers pointed inwards towards his palm, both of his hands were engulfed in shadow dragon magic.

Naruto sent a barrage of hits at Kage forcing him backwards as he blocked the incoming attacks. He then jumped up in front of Kage.

"Shadow dragon's claw"

Shadow dragon magic wrapped around Naruto's leg as it shot out towards Kage's midsection but was blocked with ease, Naruto reacted by pushing off of Kage's hand which had blocked his leg flipped backwards landing away from Kage.

"Shadow dragon's roar"

Naruto landed on the ground, he raised his head, a feral grin marring his face. A large burst of shadow dragon magic erupted from his mouth heading directly towards Kage.

"_Not bad… To learn the 4 basic attacks and apply them into a battle situation in just 15 days is quite impressive. But…"_

Just as the torrent of shadows reached Kage he opened his mouth and began to consume the shadows, leaving Naruto at a loss for words.

"My turn" Kage grinned.

"Shadow dragon's roar" Kage opened his mouth and returned to blast to Naruto, only this time the attack was bigger and tore the ground at their feet up from the intensity of the attack. Kage himself had to drag his hand along the floor to keep himself from flying backwards.

Naruto let out a yelp and jumped out of the way of the attack and much to his misfortune right into the small pond in the cavern.

"Gahaha, I guess it is time for you to cool off… give up?" Kage taunted only for his eyes to widen as he looked into the pond and saw it had been stained with the shadowy mist.

The familiar jingle echoed throughout the cavern, Kage's eyes snapped to his waist and watched as Naruto's fingertips tapped the bell.

"Shadow dragon's abyss walk"

Just as Naruto's hand was moments away from tugging the bell from around Kage's waist the older man disappeared without any trace at all.

"What the…" Naruto yelled.

As Naruto passed through the spot where Kage had been due to his momentum, Kage's forearm appeared in front of Naruto and grabbed the boy around the neck.

"Nice try Naruto." Kage panted. "That's it for today, this would go on forever… there's no way you could get a clean hit off on me and you can definitely not steal the bell from me."

Instead of arguing, Naruto instead broke out of Kage's grip and turned to face the dragon a frown on his face.

"What was that?! I know I got you with that last move!" Naruto shouted.

Kage merely chuckled at the boy's confusion. "That was a secret dragon slayer art called abyss walk, it briefly allows me to enter the abyss… a place that consists of complete darkness and where the shadows are at their strongest, however staying in there for more than 6 seconds as an intruder is too dangerous for even me."

"An intruder?" Naruto asked

"The abyss is basically the home of most shadows, entering it with the abyss walk allows me to enter it instantly but to the shadows which reside in the abyss I will be seen as an 'intruder' and the gatekeepers will hunt me down." Kage said finally catching his breath.

"Who are the gatekeepers?" Naruto questioned.

"Who are they? No one knows that apart from themselves and maybe him… as for what they are, they are immensely strong guards that keep any non-shadows from entering the abyss. If you want an idea as to how strong they are… they were the ones who gave me this scar." Kage pointed to the right side of his neck, there was a large scar stretching from his throat around the right side of his neck and it ended at the back of his neck. "This scar was received from staying in the abyss for only a mere two second longer than my limit."

"Wow… so wait, I thought you are a shadow dragon? Why aren't you allowed to enter the abyss?" Naruto pestered.

"I am allowed into the abyss. However if I enter using my abyss walk I am identified as an intruder since I didn't enter using the gate." Kage answered. "Before you ask, the gate is the proper means to entering the abyss but it takes a few minutes to open so it isn't a means of escaping amidst combat and even if it was you can say the inhabitants of the abyss aren't particularly… friendly."

"What do you mean they aren't friendly? Are all shadows evil or something?"

"The shadows aren't the only problem there Naruto. Beings stronger than the gatekeepers exist in the abyss right now due to the black mage Zeref. Many years ago, war broke out in the abyss while I still lived there. The war was started by Zeref when he invaded the abyss with an army of his demons… he is the reason why my home was wiped out and all my friends were killed. The war is still on-going as there are still many of Zeref's demons still remaining… many of the gatekeepers and some of the stronger shadows were wiped out on the first day of Zeref's invasion… to say the least it was a massacre… a one sided annihilation."

Naruto heard the strain of Kage's voice and how it was filled with sadness, "So that's why we're alike… You can't go back to your home while the war is going on can you?"

Kage chuckled sadly, "Not unless I want to be slaughtered. If I don't stand a chance then I guess even he has fled from the abyss too… or at least went into hiding."

"Who is he?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Hm? Oh nothing, he doesn't matter… it's a long shot to even consider him being alive. Although I doubt that bastard would go down so easily. Hehe, hell I guess he'd take down the whole abyss with him if he was ever going down."

"I see." Naruto muttered, "Well in the future maybe we can stop the war together and find this guy!"

Kage chuckled. "Sure, but you're going to have to get a lot stronger than you are now."

"Hmmm, speaking of which can I learn that abyss walk? What about how to consume the shadow magic?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Mhm… yes you can learn both of them, in fact I will teach you both of them in the following year or two. However, be careful when using abyss walk… after all the gatekeepers are by no means forgiving, especially when the abyss is in a state of war." Kage warned. "Honestly you should only use it as a last resort."

"Hehe, like when you were about to have the bell taken from you from a 6 year old?" Naruto grinned.

Kage grit his teeth, his face was red with embarrassment. "Hurry up and get some sleep, you can have a break tomorrow." Kage growled.

"Ok, g'night Kage." Naruto yawned as Kage returned into his shadow form, connecting with Naruto's feet.

"_Goodnight brat."_

* * *

Date: November 1st X771

Naruto's eyes snapped open as he heard a strange chattering noise. He pulled himself out of the makeshift bed and went to look around the cavern. He was interrupted when a cold gust of wind collided with him.

"Wha-what the?" He shivered as he took in the new surroundings.

The cavern hadn't changed drastically, however a large amount of snow had covered the floor. He looked up at the ceiling of the cavern; more precisely looking at the source of the snow: the hole in the roof of the cavern.

"Oh? You're finally awake Naruto?" Kage muttered replicating Naruto's shivering.

"O-of course… how could I sleep when it's so cold?" Naruto growled.

"You managed it for the past few hours…" Kage grumbled. "Oh and one more thing… I ate the last of the fruit so we need to go get more."

"You did what?!" Naruto yelled.

"I had nothing else to do for the past few hours like I said."

"So you entertained yourself… by eating fruit?" Naruto asked with a sigh.

Kage's hair shadowed his eyes as he clenched his fists and grit his teeth in both annoyance and embarrassment.

"Do you have a problem with that?" He snarled. "I'll have you know it's one of my favourite hobbies. Second to watching you suffer during training. Speaking of which, hurry up and let's get the fruit so we can get back to training."

"Like hell! You said I could have a break today!"

"Hmm, that's true. Well at least get the fruit then you can have your rest." Kage sighed.

"Fine. But who said I'm gonna spend my break resting? I want to go have a look around outside for once. We've been in the cave for over two weeks now and not looked around the area." The boy said.

"I swear, if you expect me to accompany you…" Kage warned.

"Of course you're coming with me. After all a shadow must go where ever its owner goes, correct?" Naruto jeered sticking his tongue out at Kage.

"Mm okay. But that saying goes in reverse, right?" Kage questioned.

"Yeah I guess."

"Good, then tomorrow you can have another break." Kage smiled slyly.

"Really?!"

"Sure, we can go visit the abyss since you seem to like exploring." Kage chuckled darkly.

"You have a sick sense of humour, ya know?"

"So i've been told."

Naruto and Kage made their way out the normal entrance to the cavern and to the waterfall.

"WHAT?!" The two shouted in unison

The waterfall that they had used to enter and exit the cavern had frozen up due to the sharp drop in temperature. The waterfall was now just a wall of ice stopping them from exiting the cavern.

"Great." Naruto sighed. "I guess i'm not getting that break after all…"

Kage laughed at Naruto's expense.

"..and you don't get your fruit which you apparently hate."

"Fuck." Kage growled. "Relax Naruto. I have a way of getting us out of the cavern. In fact I was planning on teaching you this as your second manipulation training since you got the hang of clones so easily."

Kage began to walk back to the main area of the cavern leaving Naruto in suspense. He walked after Kage, back into the main part of the cavern. He found Kage standing underneath the hole in the ceiling.

"Come over here a second." Kage ordered.

Naruto did as Kage said and walked over to him, once there Kage grabbed him by the neck of his shirt.

"WAIT!" Naruto cried, "You're not planning on throwing me up there are you?! I've had enough of being thrown by dragons after the first time!"

"No, although I would love to do that, you wouldn't be able to get back here." Kage stated.

"Then wha…" Naruto was cut off as he and Kage began to lift off of the ground. Naruto looked behind Kage in shock and saw two shadowy wings on his back.

"YOU HAVE WINGS?!" Naruto yelled in surprise

"Noooo i'm a dragon that doesn't have wings… so essentially i'm just a giant lizard… OF COURSE I HAVE WINGS!" Kage snapped. "Why would I get rid of the best perk of being a dragon in my human form?"

"Can I learn that?" Naruto immediately asked.

"Did you forget what I said less than a minute ago? It's the next technique i'm going to teach you."

Kage looked at Naruto who comically had his eyes replaced with stars as he stared at Kage's wings.

"Cut that out brat, it's creepy." Kage sweat dropped.

"Says the giant lizard." Naruto chuckled.

"Don't. Start."

Kage landed on the snow covered ground to the side of the hole in the cavern's roof. It was at the top of where the waterfall started, the hole was on a small island surrounded by two streams of water which connected to form the waterfall, the streams were frozen however just like the waterfall. Kage placed Naruto on back on the ground and began walking over to the frozen waterfall.

"Wow…" Naruto said in awe. "This place has a great view, look you can see the other dragon's mountain near that vill…"

Both Naruto and Kage's jaw smashed to the floor instantly. From their slightly elevated position they could make out a small village nearly at the foot of Igneel's mountain, the opposite way that he threw Naruto.

"What?!" Naruto yelled. "He never told me there was a village, right next to his mountain too!"

Naruto heard Kage chuckled behind him.

"_So he's planning that all along eh?" _Kage thought to himself.

"What's so funny?" Naruto grumbled.

"Hm? Isn't it obvious? He's testing if you're able to survive without the help of a village. So… are you going to go to the village for the next month or remain her? I'm stuck with you anyway." Kage yawned.

"Well we couldn't really train in peace if we went to the village, so we're better off staying here. Still it'll be nice to be able to buy some supplies and food from the village. I wonder if they have ramen." Naruto began to drool at the thought.

"You're forgetting one important thing… you seem to have a habit of doing that." Kage groaned.

"I am? What?" Naruto questioned.

"We don't have any money to buy supplies or your precious ramen with." Kage identified.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Naruto yelled

"Jeez, so over dramatic. We'll just take some jobs around the village to earn some, it shouldn't be hard with the two of us and it'll give you some practice." Kage said.

"Okay. Let's make our way to the village the…" Naruto was interrupted by a scream reaching the pair's ears.

"Huh? It sounds like someone is in trouble." Kage said.

"It came from near the forest where those two guys attacked us." Naruto replied as he descended the waterfall using parts of the ice to descend it with relative ease.

When he reached the bottom of the waterfall and slid off of the iced over river and onto the snowy ground next to it, Kage promptly landed next to him showing no signs of injury from the fall.

"What the…" Naruto started.

"You can ask me later Naruto, we need to go find the cause of the scream." Kage reminded the boy.

"Yeah."

The two began moving through the forest jumping from branch to branch, Naruto had learnt to concentrate shadow magic to the soles of his feet allowing him to move quicker and jump further than he normally could, thus allowing him to navigate places easier.

The pair had finally arrived at the source of the scream. It was slightly right of the area where they have met the two armed men more than a week ago; the forest had ended so no more trees blocked their vision. The two guards that Naruto and Kage had previously encountered where stood over a small redheaded girl. Naruto noticed that the ground ended behind the girl so she had nowhere to run.

"I'll leave this up to you" Kage said, "it's time to put you training into action, although if you can't take care of it i'll consider helping you."

"No… I can take care of this." Naruto said with determination.

"Heh, that's what I want to hear." With those words Kage sunk into the ground and the silhouette of Kage connected with Naruto's feet.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled gaining the men's attention.

"Hm? Oh well, look who it is." The more strong willed man grinned. "It's that brat who got lucky a few days ago."

The other man seemed scared like last time, "Hey wait! What if that other guy is here? Shouldn't we get out of here? Or have you forgotten what happened last time?"

"QUIET!" The first man barked. "He got lucky that bastard save him, that 'hero' won't show up to save him again." He sneered.

"_Naruto, do me a favour and shut him up, before I do it myself. If he calls me a…" _Kage struggled to pronounce the next word, "_hero again I swear i'll throw him off that cliff harder than Igneel threw you off the mountain."_

"_Igneel? So that's the red dragon's name? Why didn't you tell me earli…"_ Naruto was brought out of his trance as he heard the girl speak for the first time.

"Get out of here!" She cried, "It's too dangerous! They'll hurt you like… like…" the girl began sobbing as she continued, "like they hurt everyone from the village… and m-my parents…"

Naruto stared at the crying girl his fingers trembling.

"_Well what'd ya know Kage? She's just like you and me… and the bastards responsible for taking those precious to her away are standing right in front of us. I don't know whether i'm happy or angry right now… and honestly I don't care."_

The stronger man began laughing, "So what if we destroyed your village, you should show some obedience since we allowed you to live. Instead you have the nerve to run off? Don't worry…" The man's lips spread into a feral grin, "…you'll be joining your parents soon enough."

The man raised his spear and used the bottom of the staff to hit the girl across the face. She fell to the ground with a scream, tears staining the snow underneath her grounded form, a small amount of blood poured from her mouth soaking into the sand beneath her. The man then raised his spear pointing the blade towards the girl lying on the ground sobbing.

"Good riddance," He smirked as he thrust the spear downwards.

SNAP!

The man's eyes widened as he watched his spear drop to the ground. His mouth trembled before letting out an ear-piercing scream.

Naruto was stood in between the man and the redheaded girl, his hand was gripping the man's forearm tightly and shadow dragon magic slowly rose from his whole arm, which now had some black scales forming along it. His blonde hair shadowed his eyes but a viscous scowl told the story that his eyes no longer could.

"You killed her village yet let her live? Well… it all makes sense now. You two are slavers aren't you? When you attacked me you just wanted to injure me enough to capture me, eh?" Naruto growled.

"LET GO!" The man shouted attempting to pry his arm from the boy's grip. His partner on the other hand had already dropped his weapon and had fallen over out of shock.

The redheaded girl had turned herself over on the ground so she was staring at her saviour's back. Fresh tears still rolled down her cheeks as she watched her assailant squirm in pain.

"No. It's about time you learn just how much it hurts losing everything precious to you." Naruto's eyes were finally revealed to the man, they were completely emotionless expect from the clear hatred glaring at him. "How about we start with your precious arm?"

Naruto raised his free hand up and scales began to form all over his body. Shadow dragon magic began to generate around his raised hand.

"Shadow dragon's severing fang"

Naruto thrust his hand aiming to sever the man's arm from his shoulder.

"WAIT!"

Just before he could complete the gruesome task the redheaded girl stopped him by wrapping both of her arms around his right arm in an attempt to stop the attack.

"Don't sink to his level!" She pleaded, crying into Naruto's arm.

The mist instantly disappeared as did the scales which had formed over his body. He stiffened when he noticed he was gripping the man's forearm.

"What did I do?" Naruto whispered, he noticed the girl clinging to his arm sobbing into the sleeve of his shirt.

"Hey, you okay?" Naruto questioned trying to tug his arm free of her grip.

The girl looked upwards at the boy who had saved her. More tears began streaming down her cheeks.

"Ye-yes! Thank you for saving me!" She sobbed.

"Jeez stop crying," Naruto grumbled, "I'm going to need my arm by the way."

The redhead looked down and saw that she was hugging his arm and immediately released it her face turning the same colour as her hair.

"Sorry" She smiled wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Much better," Naruto chuckled, "I'll deal with thes…"

"Look out!" she screamed.

"Hm?" Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw the man had managed to grab his weapon with his other hand. He shakily lifted it other his head attempting to finish his job.

"Die!" He howled, thrusting the spear at Naruto's head.

"Hold on tight." Naruto whispered into the girl's ear as he took hold of her hand.

In an instant they had both disappeared from in front of the man to his total surprise, he heard a rustling from over the ledge of the cliff and both he and his partner stared over the ledge in utter shock.

The girl opened her eyes and felt a gentle breeze brush against her face. Her eye's widened in astonishment. Naruto was carrying her bridal style on the top of one of the trees beneath the cliff where they had previously been only a few seconds before.

"Wo-wow." She said breathlessly, "how did you do that?"

"Magic." He replied with a grin.

"Really?! You're a mage?" She asked in awe.

"Yep, a special type of mage too." He said, his grin growing wider.

"Huh? There are special types of mages? Like what?" She asked curiously with a bright smile on her face.

"Hehe, can I answer you later? We're kinda running out of time here." He chuckled. He pointed upwards to the top of the cliff where the two slavers where staring down at the pair in complete amazement.

The small girl let out a giggle, "Sure. You promise you'll tell me, right?"

"Heh, sure, I promise i'll tell you everything about my magic."

The girl looked at him, blushing once again. "Thanks."

"Erm…" Naruto started.

"Yes?" The girl asked.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" Naruto said with a chuckle.

"Erza."

"Hm? Just Erza? No last na…" Naruto stopped himself, he saw sadness began to resurface on her face and avoided the question.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He replied with a grin, "Now how about we deal with those two?" He asked pointing to the stunned slavers above them.

"How?" Erza asked in confusion, she watched as Naruto's grin got bigger than she thought possible.

"Kage! You can take care of them whenever you're ready!" Naruto shouted causing himself look insane.

"Who are you taking to?" Erza asked looking around in confusion.

"With pleasure!" A voice boomed from up on the cliff with the two slavers.

In response to the voice behind them, the two men turned around only to come face to face with Kage, who they had been acquainted with previously. They noted the feral grin present on his face and watched as he cracked his knuckles.

Two high pitched screams echoed from a top the cliff.

"Are they okay?" Erza asked.

"Hm? Sure I told him not to hurt them… too badly anyway." Naruto mumbled the last part.

"Who's this 'he'" Erza asked puffing her cheeks out in confusion, giving Naruto a pout.

Naruto chuckled, "Kage, my current shadow and a huge dragon."

Erza looked at him as if questioning his sanity.

"You trust me don't you? I promised i'll explain it later."

"Yes. Of course I trust you." She replied with a beaming smile.

* * *

**Chapter 3 finished, **

**Took longer than predicted because exams where earlier than I had realised. But then again the chapter itself was a lot longer than I had thought it would be.**

**I know that Kage and Naruto becoming partners and friends seemed pretty rushed and instantaneous but I wanted for them to get a closer bond earlier on so that I could begin Naruto's "learning phase" of the shadow dragon magic and in future (most likely next) chapters his fire dragon magic. I've also been waiting for a confirmation of something happening in canon of the manga but since the arc has ended i've got my answer ready for maybe next chapter.**

**The next chapter will most likely have a major time skip (about 3,4 or 5 years) because I want to focus pre-canon more on his teen years (mainly around 14,15 and 16) as most of the arcs I've thought of will be for Naruto's progression. **

**One last thing will be about attack names. There are 3 options that I'm thinking of for the attack names:**

**English names like i'm doing now,**

**Japanese names with their English translation and a description of the attack at the end of the chapter**

**Japanese names but instead of the translation and description being at the end of the chapter there will be a chapter that has all the attacks with their translation and description. (Don't know if this option is possible, I mean it is relevant to the story and I find it annoying having to scroll to the bottom of the chapter to find out what the attack means, etc.)**

**The translation may be slightly wrong if I do the Japanese names since I'd have to rely on the internet, but if that is the chosen option then just correct any mistakes. I'll have to work out how to put a poll up and include the 3 options.**

**Finally, I worked out a schedule on when I will be typing, it will mainly be on Wednesdays and Fridays since they're days when the main manga come out so i'm pumped to type then, so it is most likely a new chapter every 2 weeks (3-4 if it's a long chapter or it's hard to write.)**

**Also, thanks to everyone who followed/favourited and those who reviewed.**

**Thanks for reading (^.^)/**


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